Arc (Working title)
by DeathsFool
Summary: In a strange turn of events, he realized that he, a hunter, was attending a school for hunters. No serial killers or anything like that. Cross over elements.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: New cases **

'_Man, why are all my cases so weird_?' Jaune wondered. Jaune had seen and done a lot in his relatively short life. Even so, the idea that he would one day have to sneak in into an academy for future slayers would have made him laugh a week ago. Still, here he was, in Beacon Academy, school for all kinds of messed up teens.

Not that he could say anything about how messed up it was. His upbringing and current job weren't exactly normal either.

His thoughts immediately strayed towards his last case.

'_Now that one was real doozy'_ he thought to himself. '_Never expected to see a freaking Lamia all the way out here in Vytal_…'

His stomach suddenly lurched.

"Guh!" he breathed out. '_Stupid, goddamned motion sickness_!'

It was pathetic. He was a hunter, a man that had faced creatures that most people wouldn't even dream of and he was being brought down by motion sickness. He sighed.

'_Concentrate on the matter at hand, Arc!_' he mentally berated himself. He looked at the newspaper articles in his hand.

'_2 more students in coma at Beacon Academy…Causes unknown…_' That made a total of 4 students that had mysteriously fallen into a coma in this academy. If this wasn't a case he'd eat his boots.

'_What the hell causes people to fall into comas anyways?'_ He really couldn't think of any creature that would do that. Most monsters wouldn't place their victims in a coma. No, those students had gotten lucky.

He began to think of all the creatures that he knew of when his stomach reminded him that he was still in a dust plane.

'_Damn it all_!' he thought as he ran to the nearest bathroom.

* * *

When he finally got off that damned flying coffin he had decided that whoever had designed this academy had to have been compensating for something.

He then face palmed when realization sank in.

'_I'm exploring a freaking haunted castl_e_!_' he sighed. '_I have become the cliché that every hunter fears becoming...'_

He was interrupted from his musing by an explosion. He immediately jumped away from where the sound had come from and crouched, ready to leap away should he need to.

'_Damn it, pay attention, Arc! Just because this is an academy doesn't mean it's safe, even in broad daylight!' _he berated himself.

He analyzed the scene before him and face palmed again. This was something straight out a cartoon.

"This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" a girl in white yelled at a girl in red.

"I'm really, really sorry!" Red replied while nervously fiddling with her fingers. Jaune was suddenly struck with the realization that Red looked like a puppy.

"Ugh, you complete idiot! What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little too young to be attending Beacon Academy?" White really didn't seem to want to let up on the puppy.

"Well…I…" Red stammered out.

"This isn't your ordinary combat school; it's not just sparring and practice you know. We're here to fight monsters!" White cut Red off.

'_There are ordinary combat schools?' _Jaune wondered.

"So watch where you're going!" White huffed.

"Hey, I said I was sorry, Princess!" The puppy exclaimed.

'_Good to see the puppy has a spine after all.' _ Jaune decided to leave. There was nothing of interest here. Sure, the girls were cute, but he really had more important things to focus on.

"It's heiress, actually." A quite voice spoke from behind him. He turned around and saw a girl with black hair and a really big ribbon on her head.

'_Is it just me or does everyone here have a color scheme?' _Jaune wondered. Still, he couldn't deny that he was curious now. Ribbons had mentioned that White was an heiress. He supposed he could stay behind a little longer and listen to this debacle for a little longer.

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation." Ribbons explained softly.

'_Holy balls, did she say Schnee?' _ Jaune had to admit he was definitely interested now. A lot of the dust bombs and tools he carried had been…appropriated had been made by said company after all.

"Finally, some recognition." Weiss Schnee said proudly.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor force and questionable business partners." Ribbons went on.

'_Ribbons sounds like a faunus sympathizer.' _Not that he cared. In his humble opinion people sucked whether they had animal parts or not. Actually, now that he thought about it, some of the best hunters he'd worked with had been faunus. Their heightened sense of smell, hearing and night vision had saved his ass plenty of times. He had always made sure to repay the favor. They had been good people.

"How dare- The nerve of-!" Schnee sputtered.

Jaune gave her an incredulous look.

'_Honey, no company ever gets that amount of power, money and influence by spreading love and peace around the world.' _

Hell, even he had heard of their controversial labor force and questionable business partners and he rarely cared about such things.

"Ugh!" Schnee snorted in a manner most befitting of a heiress to an incredibly powerful corporation and snatched a bottle out of Ribbon's hands before marching away with what dignity she had left.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" the puppy told the leaving heiress. Schnee just kept walking away.

Puppy sighed. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day."

'_Darling, Princess there has servants to clean up her mess and carry her crap. Rough, my perfectly shaped ass.' _Jaune mentally snorted.

Puppy suddenly brightened.

"So, what's your-"she began to say before realizing that Ribbons was leaving.

Jaune observed the leaving figure. The way she walked reminded him too much of a predator. That girl was dangerous.

The puppy suddenly fell over, facing the despair that only the main character in high school dramas had faced.

"Welcome to Beacon…"she said dejectedly.

This caused Jaune to brighten up. This girl had the potential to become a smart ass, and that was worth its weight in gold. He decided to give her a hand.

He walked over towards the puppy and he offered her his hand.

"Looks like you could use a hand." He said, trying his hardest not to look like the kind of person that would approach others and offer them candy.

She nodded gratefully and took his hand.

"Thanks." She told him.

"Eh, don't sweat it, kiddo." Jaune replied easily.

"I am not a kid!" the kid protested.

Jaune smiled. '_Too easy._'

"Right, right, sorry about that." He replied placatingly.

The girl's glare dropped and she appeared mollified.

Then her eyes widened in recognition.

"Hey, aren't you Vomit Boy?" she asked.

Jaune sighed. '_I_ _finally got into high school and this is my big debut?'_

"I'm not going to live that down, am I?" he said out loud.

"I'm sorry, it's just that it's the first thing that came to mind!" the puppy tried to explain.

Jaune gave her a smile. "And I'm pretty sure that Crater face is the first thing that's come to mind when I look at you." He replied. He mentally winced.

'_Crater face? Seriously? Damn it, brain, I did not go through 8 years of insult school for you let me down like this!' _

Still, it seemed to have the intended effect.

"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" the puppy exclaimed indignantly.

"Well, whatever, the name's Jaune Arc." He told her.

"Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it!" he added while wiggling his eyebrows.

The puppy giggled. "Do they now?"

"Well, that's what my mommy said…" Jaune replied with mock nervousness.

The puppy smiled. And then her eyes widened. "Oh, right, my name's Ruby. Ruby Rose."

Jaune smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"So, I got this thing." Ruby said.

'_Chlamydia?' _

And she pulled out a frigging scythe.

'_Holy crap, definitely not Chlamydia.'_

"Holy crap, that's one badass scythe!" he said out loud

"It's also a customizable, high impact velocity sniper rifle." Ruby said proudly.

'_Okay, on one hand, whose brilliant idea was it to combine one the best long range weapons with one of the most impractical close range weapons? But on the other hand, holly hell, that is so freaking badass where can I buy 5 of those?'_

"That is so freaking awesome."

Ruby smiled. It was obvious to him that Puppy here loved her weapon.

"So what have you got?" Ruby asked.

'_Well, I have various safe houses full of all kinds of weapons but I only brought a couple of weapons here.'_

"Nothing as impressive. Just a sawed off double barrel one pistol grip shotgun." He listed as he pulled out 'Ol Trusty.

Ruby examined it with interest. "So what does it do?"

"It shoots things." He replied dryly.

"That's it?" Ruby asked.

"Well, I got it because it's easy to carry around and I can modify the ammo."

He usually used salt rock but had experimented with dust.

"Really? What kind of ammo?" She questioned.

"Eh, just bullets with different assorted fun effects like explosions, freezing, and the like." He replied.

"That is so cool." She squealed.

Jaune gave her an odd look and for a moment, Ruby was afraid that she had scared off a potential friend.

"You mean to tell that despite using a badass customizable sniper you've never tried using different types of ammo?" he asked.

Ruby almost sighed in relief.

"Well, dust cartridges are kind of expensive and my previous academy only provided the standard kind of ammo…" she replied.

"Seriously?" Jaune asked. "No. I can't let this stand. You have a totally badass scythe/sniper and you have never even tried using an explosive bullet?"

Ruby shook her head. She had heard of explosive rounds but had never actually used one.

Jaune sighed. Then he nodded. "Okay, first chance we get, I'm taking you to my arms dealer. He's kind of an ass but he's fair and offers good prices."

Ruby's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Sure, it's not as if he'd mind the additional business."

"Thanks!"

"Thank me once we get you some nice, explosive bullets." Jaune replied. "Anyways, I also have this Taurus PT92."

He handed Ruby the gun.

'_I remember a time when giving little girls guns was considered suicidal.'_

Ruby examined the gun with interest. "So what does this one do?"

"Again, it shoots things."

Ruby actually pouted at him.

'_What is this? What is this?! What's this power that compels me to give this girl before me everything that she asks of me?'_

"I uhh…It's not as special as my shotgun. But I can add attachments like a tactical light and other such tools." His mouth moved without his permission. At least he hadn't mentioned the silencer. That would get his a bunch of awkward questions that he wouldn't be able to answer.

Ruby gave the gun an interested look.

Jaune suddenly didn't feel the compulsion to swear eternal fealty to the girl before him.

'_Either she has the most powerful puppy dog eyes I have ever encountered or she's a supernatural monster in the guise of an adorable girl with a weapons fetish. Huh. I never thought I'd use the words "adorable girl" and "weapon fetish" in the same sentence.'_

Ruby handed him his gun back.

"I also have a bowie knife. Nothing special, just a knife I use in a pinch." And he showed her his knife. He was rather fond of this one.

Ruby examine the knife. "It's cool." She told him before giving it back.

"And that's pretty much everything I have!"

'_At the moment…'_

"Nothing as cool as yours."

"Well, I guess I did go a bit overboard while designing my Crescent Rose…" Ruby replied.

"Wait you designed that?!" Jaune asked, shocked.

'_Wonder if she does requests…'_

"Well, yeah, all students at Signal forge their own weapons. Didn't you make yours?" she asked.

"Nah, I got them through various back door dealings that were probably illegal and incredibly dangerous!" he replied cheerfully.

"Wait what?" Ruby suddenly seemed very confused.

"What?" he asked obliviously.

"You just said that-" Ruby tried to explain.

"Wait." Jaune interrupted.

"What?" asked Ruby.

"Where are we going?" Jaune asked her.

"I don't know. I was following you!" Ruby told him.

"But I was following you!" Jaune replied.

"Crap, we're late!" they both yelled at the same time and ran off hoping to find something or someone to tell them where to go.

* * *

AN: Wouldn't be a fan fic without one of these, amirite? Kind of a pseudo crossover between Supernatural, RWBY, and various other shows and books that I've seen and read. That aside, English is not my first language so I'd like to apologize in advance for any mistakes I might have made.

Crocea Mors will be making an appearance later and Jaune will definitely be its user.

Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, I do not own RWBY or any other series I'm drawing ideas from.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Welcome to Beacon **

Jaune sighed in relief when he and Ruby finally arrived at the auditorium.

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" a voice called out. Jaune turned to the source of the voice and saw drop dead gorgeous blonde woman.

He didn't stare though. Much.

"Oh! Hey, I gotta go!" Ruby told him. "I'll see you at the ceremony!" and she ran towards Blondie.

"Hey, wait!" Jaune called out to no avail as Ruby either ignored him or didn't hear him as she ran away. He sighed.

'_Yeesh, I didn't think I came off as such a creep. Although then again, who could blame her for leaving little ol' me for…that?' _

"Great, now where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky to talk to?" he mumbled. Still, it hadn't seemed as though she knew more of Beacon than him, so it wasn't all that bad. She probably wouldn't have been able to answer his questions anyway.

With nothing to do, he decided to find a quiet spot to sit in and wait for the orientation to end. He was scanning the area when he heard a loud yell.

"YOU!"

He immediately turned to the source of the noise, expecting a banshee or a hag and saw the heiress yelling at Ruby. Jaune allowed himself to relax and smiled a little; for once, fate wasn't kicking his ass.

'_Damn, it's really not Ruby's day, huh?'_

"Oh, god, it's happening again!" Ruby screamed and jumped into the Blondie's arms. Jaune gaped at scene before him.

'_Did she just…Did she just jump into Blondie's arms à la Scooby Doo?' _

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" Schnee continued her tirade.

"Oh my god, you really exploded…" Blondie muttered.

The deadpan look on Blondie's face as she said that made him smile.

"It was an accident! An accident!" Ruby tried to defend herself as she got down from Blondie's arms.

Schnee promptly interrupted Ruby's rather impressive verbal defense with a pamphlet.

"What's this?" asked a confused looking Ruby.

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for…" Schnee began.

'_Oh wow. Did she seriously memorize the contents of the pamphlet? Wow. I'm not sure whether that's sad or impressive. Sadly impressive? Impressively sad?' _

Ruby seemed just as flabbergasted as him. "Uhh…?"

"You really wanna start making things up to me?" Schnee asked befuddled Ruby.

"Absolutely?"

"Read this and don't ever talk to me again."

Jaune's eyebrow rose at this. '_Damn, that's harsh…What, did the explosion clip your fingernails, Princess?'_

Blondie tried to defuse the situation. "Look, it sounds like you 2 got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends?" she asked them.

Jaune snorted. _'Oh, sure! And maybe they can all form a team and fight for peace, love and justice!'_

Ruby seemed to like the idea though. "Great idea, sis!" she told Blondie.

'_Wait, sis? As in "sister"?'_

Ruby turned to the heiress. "Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby. Want to hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!"

Jaune discreetly examined Blondie's and Ruby's facial structure. _'Okay, either she meant that figuratively or their milk man got very lucky one day.'_

"Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blonde, and scraggly over there!" Schnee replied a little too enthusiastically.

Jaune's musing was interrupted by that last statement. He could almost taste the sarcasm in her voice. He also noticed that she was talking about him. He snorted.

'_Tall, blonde and scraggly? Really?' _

"Wow, really?!" Asked a hopeful looking Ruby.

Beat.

'_And wait for it…'_

Shnee's glare could have frozen lava.

"NO."

Ruby seemed a tad crestfallen.

'_D'aww she looks so sad, someone should really pat her, tell her it's gonna be alright and give her some treats.' _

The sound of a throat being cleared made everyone focus on the stage, where an old man was preparing a mic.

'_So that's Ozpin, huh?' _

"I'll... keep this brief." Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge; to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."

'_Well, someone forgot their happy pills.' _

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin finished and left the stage.

A blonde woman took the mic. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

'_Welcome to Beacon!'_

Jaune sighed and decided to go to sleep. There really was nothing he could do right now.

* * *

Ozpin was pleased. She could tell. Ozpin looked as if a huge load had been lifted off of him. He hid it well, but she could tell.

"Would you mind telling me what put you in such a good mood?" she asked him.

Ozpin hummed.

"Well, my coffee tastes great and some of the new students show potential."

She fixed him a stern look. "Ozpin."

Ozpin smiled. "The solution to our problems has arrived."

Glynda's eyes widened. "You mean the person you were looking for is here?"

Ozpin nodded. "Yes. It took a lot of time, but Jaune Arc has finally arrived at Beacon."

Glynda's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure he can deal with our problem?"

Ozpin's smile widened.

'_Jaune Arc…Finally. Now, I can repay my debt and help my students at the same time... Fate truly works in mysterious ways._

* * *

Jaune woke up and stretched the kinks out of his body.

'_Up and at 'em, cowboy! Let's get some work done today!' _

But first, he had to find his locker. He began to whistle jauntily as he searched for his locker.

'_Alright, 525…526...' _He was searching for his locker when he ran into Schnee and a cute redhead. Schnee seemed to really want the redhead in her team. Like really, really want her.

'_My mind just went to a really happy place.'_

Schnee was saying something about how great it would be.

'_Yes, that would be great…'_

Shaking his head, he decided to repay the heiress for her jab at him the previous day.

"You know what else was great? The explosion in the courtyard yesterday!" he interjected.

"What-who are you?!" Schnee demanded.

Jaune gasped theatrically. "To forget me so quickly…Am I not the apple in your eyes? I, your tall, blonde and scraggly?"

Schnee's eyes widened in realization.

"You?!" she demanded.

"Me!" Jaune replied cheerfully.

A giggle suddenly interrupted them. Jaune turned to the redhead.

"Ah, but where are my manners? I'm Jaune Arc, Weiss Schnee's object of affection."

"Wha-" Schnee began only to be interrupted by the redhead.

"My name is Pyrrha Nikos. Nice to meet you, Jaune Arc, Weiss Schnee's object of affection."

Jaune smiled. _'Oh, this girl's gonna be fun.'_

The betrayed look that Schnee gave Pyrrha and the glare she gave Jaune would warm his heart until the day that he died. He was sure of it.

"You are not the object of my affection! I don't even know you!" Schnee yelled at him.

Jaune gave an exaggerated sigh and turned to Pyrrha. "As you can see, she's rather shy in public."

If Schnee's glare could be weaponized he was sure that no being alive in this world would be able to survive it.

Fortunately for the heiress, Pyrrha decided that enough was enough. "So, Jaune, have you heard the rumors? Have you chosen a partner?"

Jaune frowned. "Partner?"

Schnee snorted contemptuously. "Do you know nothing? Students in Beacon Academy have a partner and form teams of four with 2 other students."

Jaune's frown deepened. This could be troublesome. "I see."

Pyrrha noticed the frown. "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine!"

Jaune smiled bitterly. "Yeah, everything's gonna be just peachy!"

Schnee glared at him again. "The nerve of-! Do you know who you're talking to?"

Jaune's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. He'd run into the heiress to one of the largest corporations in the world. Was Pyrrha also some kind of heiress or something?

"No. Enlighten me?" he asked her politely.

"This is Pyrrha." Weiss told him imperiously.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha greeted him cheerfully.

Jaune gave the heiress a dry look and pointed at his hoodie. "…And this is a hoodie. Oh, and hello again!"

Weiss glared again.

'_She really should smile more. '_

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum!" Weiss tried again.

"Well, congratulations, Ms. Nikos!" Jaune cheered.

"Thank you, and please, call me Pyrrha." Pyrrha smiled.

Jaune nodded. "Only if call me Jaune."

"Do you even know what Sanctum is?!" Weiss demanded.

Jaune did, in fact, know what a sanctum was. He just didn't know what the Sanctum was.

"No?"

Weiss scoffed. "She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row! A new record!"

Jaune turned to look at the redhead. "Congratulations! Again!"

"Thank you. Again." Pyrrha replied easily.

""She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!" Schnee went for her Hail Mary.

Jaune's eyes widened in realization. "Wait, that's you?!"

Pyrrha nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty cool. Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

Jaune shrugged. "Wouldn't know. I'm more of a Count Chocula kind of dude."

"Now that you understand do you think you have right to speak to her so…" Weiss began.

"Insouciantly?" Jaune interrupted.

Beat.

Weiss gave him an incredulous stare. "…I'm amazed you know what that word even means."

Jaune smiled and nodded. "I know right? I just look so stupid."

"Ah, I really don't mind." Pyrrha interrupted.

Jaune grinned. "See, she's cool! Now if you 2 fine ladies would excuse me, I have to go find my locker." With that, he left to search for his equipment.

'_Partners and teams, huh? Well, damn, this is not gonna make my job any easier…Sigh, I just hope I'm partnered up to someone that doesn't ask too many questions…'_

* * *

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin told them.

Jaune shifted nervously before mentally scolding himself. All the other students seemed fine. They were all standing on the edge of cliff. He peered over the edge and saw a luscious, thick forest.

He mentally groaned. _'Damn it, I'm guessing we're gonna have to walk down a lot of stairs to get there.'_

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates today." Glynda continued.

'_Do we get to choose? I want that big, dumb looking one.' _He thought to himself as he saw a brown haired boy wearing a thick set of armor.

"These team mates will be with you for the duration of your stay here in Beacon." Ozpin spoke up. "With that said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner, so make sure to choose wisely!"

'_What.'_

""After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die." Ozpin calmly continued.

'_Who the hell came up with this idea? Seriously? What the hell is wrong with you people?!'_

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene." Ozpin kept explaining the assignment. "At the end of the path you will find a temple containing several artifacts. Each pair is to pick one and return with the relict. Intact."

Jaune noticed that when Ozpin had said intact he had not necessarily been talking about the students.

"Any questions?" Ozpin finished.

Jaune looked around and noticed that no one here seemed to have any questions. He sighed

"Yes, sir." He spoke out loud.

"No? Good! Now take your positions!" Glynda commanded.

Jaune noticed a student being launched into the forest.

'_What. The. Hell.'_

"Sir, I think I forgot my parachute." He tried to inform his professors.

Ozpin and Glynda shared a look before turning to look at him.

"That's okay, Mr. Arc, no one here has a parachute." Ozpin "encouraged" Jaune.

"Oh, well, in that case-" Jaune began. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" he finished.

"Oh, do calm down, Mr. Arc. I am sure that you have a landing strategy already, correct?" Ozpin informed him, amused.

"What do you mean landing strategy?! How are you expecting anyone to survive this? Seriously, What the fuuuuuuu-" His tirade was interrupted by a severe case of sudden loss of gravity.

Glynda gave Ozpin a skeptical look. "Are you sure he's the solution to our problem?"

Ozpin nodded. "He may not seem like much but I assure you he has the potential."

Glynda sniffed. "And it's our job to ensure he reaches that potential?"

Ozpin shook his head. "No, we will simply show him the way. Whether he reaches his potential or not is up to him."

* * *

AN: Apologies if this just felt like canon rehash; this is just supposed to be a filler chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Partners and Monsters**

"-Uuuuuuuck!" Jaune screamed as he flew through the air. This was NOT what he had signed up for. He flailed wildly as he tried to find something, _anything_ to hold on to.

'_Why didn't I just sneak in as a freaking janitor?!' _he mentally screamed at himself as he physically screamed out loud.

That analytical part of him, the part that had been refined in countless fights, noted that Ruby's sister was flying in front him. It also noted that she was wearing a flight cap. A _freaking _flight cap.

'_Where did she even get that?'_ that part wondered. The rest of him was too busy panicking to pay any kind of attention.

'_Okay, Jaune, deep breaths. Relax. Ignore the fact you are going to fall and die horribly and no one's going to mourn you and you're going to-Okay, Stop! Seriously, Arc! Get it together!' _He managed to stop himself from screaming his lungs out.

'_Well, that's a start. Now, look around you. The other students also didn't have parachutes. They must have some kind of…"landing strategy", right?'_

Jaune looked around him. He caught sight of Ruby in the distance shooting down to slow her descent.

'_Huh.'_ He looked down at 'Ole Trusty. Yeah, that wouldn't do. He looked around him again. Somewhere far ahead of him, he noticed Schnee _summon_ a freaking magic circle in the air below her with a sword and leapt off daintily.

He looked down at 'Ole Trusty. No, that definitely wouldn't do.

'_Damn it, Arc, you're running out of time!' _ He had decided to pull out 'Ole Trusty and at least try to slow his descent when he noticed a red blur coming right at him. He didn't quite know what it was but it was coming right at him and instincts were screaming at him to get away.

'_I hate my life. I freaking hate my life so much.'_

He tried to twist out of the way but that was pretty much impossible in the air and at the speed he was moving at.

He breathed out when the spear hit the hood on his hoodie and carried him towards a tree, where it embedded itself.

"Oh, wow…Damn…I can't…I can't believe I survived that." He wheezed out. After a minute or so his heart finally decided to stop trying to escape his chest cavity.

"Whew. Now to get off this tree…" he said as he tried to pull the spear out.

Which is when he realized that he could _not _pull the spear out.

He sighed. "Well, now what?" Then he heard footsteps approaching his location.

'_Great, knowing my luck, it's probably a monster or something.'_

Weiss Schnee walked into the clearing.

'_Ooh, damn, I was so close!'_

Schnee raised her gaze to see the blonde fop from earlier dangling by a tree. Her lips curled into a small smirk.

"Nice timing! A little help here?" he asked her with a winning smile.

She looked directly into his eyes…and promptly turned around and left.

"Wait, come back! I seriously need a hand here!" he called out after her.

He sighed again. _'Okay, I might have gone a bit overboard earlier. '_

"Jaune?" a voice spoke from beneath him. He looked down and saw Pyrrha looking at him with amusement. "Do you have any spots left on your team?"

Jaune smiled and nodded ecstatically. Sure, she wasn't her first choice for a partner, but if it got him off of this tree, he'd be willing to work with anyone. Besides, judging by her lack of a weapon, he guessed that this spear belonged to her.

'_Maybe good things do happen to bad people!'_

"Of course! I'd be happy to work with the person that saved my life!" he was talking about the spear. He wasn't sure he would have survived that fall without her timely assistance by means of hoodie impalement.

'_Although that was my favorite hoody…'_

She got him down and reclaimed her spear.

"Now, where to?" he asked Pyrrha. "I was kinda busy flailing like an idiot to pay attention to directions."

Pyrrha nodded. "Follow me."

"Gotcha."

They were about to leave the clearing when Jaune suddenly crouched, alert. He noticed that Pyrrha seemed similarly alarmed. He approved. That showed that his partner had good combat instincts.

"Did you hear that?" Jaune asked her.

Pyrrha nodded. "Gunfire. We should go."

Jaune nodded and they both began to move with renewed vigor. Pyrrha ran past a branch, causing it to wind back and move back to its rightful position like a rubber band. Jaune, already alert, managed to move his face to the side and the branch just grazed his cheek, leaving a thin cut.

Pyrrha stopped and looked back at her partner. "Jaune! I'm sorry!"

Jaune shrugged. "It's just a flesh wound!" he declared in his best British accent.

Pyrrha smiled. "Monty Python?"

Jaune smiled back. "Yes! Glad to see my partner has good taste!"

Pyrrha shook her head amusedly before giving her partner a serious look. "Why didn't you activate your Aura?"

Jaune gave her an odd look. He'd heard of Aura, of course, but he, just like most '_hunters',_ assumed it was a fairy tale or some plot device in movies. Of course, there was the occasional drunk '_hunter'_ that swore it was real and that it had save their lives but most tended to leave them alone.

"Isn't that just a plot device?" he asked her.

Pyrrha frowned. "Jaune…Do you know what Aura is?"

He nodded. "Sure do. It's a plot device that authors use in their works to justify their characters being shot at and carved up and not dying."

Magical forcefields were completely illogical and silly. Not like Dust and its magical properties which actually made sense.

'_Huh. Actually, when put like that, both sound illogical. Then again, considering my line of business, I have no right to say anything.'_

Pyrrha's frown deepened. "Jaune…Aura is real."

He snorted. "Right."

'_Well, if it helps her deal with this who am I to deny her that?'_

Pyrrha glared at him. "Have you ever felt like someone's been watching you when you can't see anybody around you?"

He thought back to previous cases and the many creatures he had encountered.

"All the time." He answered somberly.

"That was your Aura." Pyrrha informed him.

'_Nope, I'm pretty sure that was a very angry monster from beyond human understanding!'_

"With practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals." Pyrrha continued with her explanation.

"What even monsters?" Jaune asked skeptically. That would certainly explain how he could spend an entire ammo clip on some creatures only for them to get right back up.

Pyrrha shook her head. "No. The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity."

Well, it made sense. For a plot device.

"They are the darkness and we are the light." Pyrrha finished.

That last bit resonated with him and his constant struggles against the various creatures that roamed the night.

"I can agree with that."

Pyrrha nodded but she added: "Yes, but we should never forget that everyone has a little bit of both in them."

Jaune closed his eyes. "Indeed."

Pyrrha smiled. Her partner had a keen mind and seemed to grasp ideas quickly.

"Now keep your eyes closed." She told him.

Jaune seemed confused. "Why? You're not gonna kiss me are you?"

Pyrrha blushed. "No! I'm just going to awaken your Aura!"

Jaune frowned. '_I swear to Monty, if she slips me a pill or something I'm going to shoot her a little.'_

Pyrrha released some of her Aura and began to intone: ""For it is in passing that we achieve immortality."

Jaune shivered at this. It wasn't uncomfortable or unpleasant. It just…It resonated with something deep inside him.

"Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." Pyrrha finished.

Jaune felt something awaken inside him and snapped his eyes open. He felt…He felt _alive._ Stronger than he ever had.

'_Maybe there's something to this Aura thing after all.'_

Then he saw his partner hunched over. "Pyrrha? You alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I just used up a lot of my Aura to awaken yours. You have a lot of it." She replied.

Jaune smiled at her. "Good to know." He said as he examined his glowing hands.

"Well, then, shall we go on, m'lady?" Jaune asked his partner in the most pompous way possible, even bowing a little.

Pyrrha smiled. "Indeed, good sir. Let us continue." She replied in an equally pompous manner.

'_Things are finally looking up!' _he thought to himself. '_And hey, is that it?'_

He looked at the entrance to the cave. "Think this is the place?" he asked his partner.

"Hm...I doubt it." Pyrrha replied while examining the drawings in the cave walls. Jaune frowned and looked at the pictures. It looked a like a group of men fighting some kind of scorpion.

'_I'm gonna take a random stab in the dark here and say that those guys have never heard of Raid.'_

"You're right. I don't think this is the place, but…"

"But?" his partner asked him.

"I also think we should check it out." He replied. He didn't know much about Grimm, but he knew that any of them could kill a man and he had a duty as a hunter to protect his fellow man from monsters and the like. Jaune pulled out a flashlight from his rucksack.

"Are you sure?" she asked him.

He nodded and walked in.

Pyrrha followed after him.

* * *

"The last pair has been formed, sir." Glynda informed Ozpin.

She looked down at her scroll.

"Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy…I can't possibly imagine those 2 getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Ms. Nikos. I'm disappointed with the boy so far, to not even know what Aura is…"

Ozpin just smiled.

"I guess we'll find out soon if he deserves a place here. At their current pace, they should reach the temple in a couple of minutes." She continued.

Then a thought hit her. "Sir, what did you use as relics this time? Ozpin?"

* * *

"Hey what is that?" he asked.

Pyrrha examined the glowing point before them and frowned. "I'm not too sure."

They had been looking around for some time now and she was starting to think that the cave was empty and that they should get out.

"Think that's the relic? It's gold and it glows!" So saying, Jaune reached for what he believed to be the relic.

The "relic" moved out of reach.

"What the hell?" Jaune wondered before pointing his flashlight at the "relic".

* * *

Yang suddenly gasped as she heard a loud, girlish scream.

"Blake, did you hear that? Some poor girl's in trouble!"

* * *

Jaune did not know what the thing was chasing them was but he didn't think it wanted to offer them tea and crumpets.

"Run, Pyrrha, run!" he screamed at his partner.

"It's a deathstalker! A deathstalker!" his partner yelled back.

"How do we kill it?" Jaune tried to ask before he was flung into the sky by the Deathstalker's tail.

"AAAIIIEEEE!" Jaune screamed.

He was truly beginning to hate the sky. And, hey, was that Ruby falling out of the sky?

In spite of his unplanned flight, he smiled. At least he wasn't the only one.

Then he remembered how she had landed perfectly fine without spear assisted help and he sighed. _'Why is everyone in this messed up version of Disneyland so much better than me?'_

That was when he noticed that Ruby was not shooting and her descent wasn't being slowed down by anything.

Applying his admittedly limited knowledge of physics, he realized that-

'_Balls!'_

-he was going to crash into her.

"FOREEEE!" he tried to warn her. Ruby turned towards him and her eyes widened.

'_Oh, this is just not my day.' _Was his last thought before he crashed into Ruby and both of them flew towards a tree. He twisted in midair, hoping to cushion the blow the small girl.

They both slammed into the tree (although Ruby had gotten lucky; she slammed into him rather than into the tree directly like he had.) and they both fell into a branch.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" he heard a voice.

"I…" yet another familiar voice, but he was too disoriented to tell.

He was trying to get up when he swore he heard a cowgirl.

"YEE-HAAAAW!"

"Aww, it's broken."

Okay, seriously, what the hell was going on? He managed to get up and rubbed his eyes, opened them and examined the scene before him.

Then he lowered his eyes, rubbed them again and looked up again.

'_This is really happening, isn't it.'_

Why was there an orange haired girl observing the carcass of a Grimm? He also noticed that Ribbons and Ruby's "sister" were there.

"Nora! Please, don't ever do that again!" a new voice said.

Jaune looked at the source of this new voice and noticed a girl(boy?) with pink eyes running towards the girl by the carcass.

The orange haired girl ignored the new girl and ran towards what he assumed was the temple. "Oohhh…" she said before snatching rook from a chess set.

"I'm the queen of the castle! I'm the queen of the castle!" she squealed joyfully.

'_Well, at least someone is happy. Also, is that the relic? Seriously?' _

"Nora!" the pink eyed girl(boy?) yelled.

"Coming, Ren!" The girl, now identified as Nora, yelled back before dropping the queen piece and taking a rook before skipping off towards the now identified Ren.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Ribbons asked.

"I…" the "Sister" tried again.

A loud screech interrupted her and Pyrrha appeared in the scene, still running away from the Deathstalker.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled at her.

"Jaune!" she yelled right back.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled as she managed to jump out of the tree.

"Ruby!" the "sister", now identified as Yang yelled right back.

The 2 "sisters" hugged.

"Nora!" Nora screamed as she jumped between them.

'_Did we…Did we just reenact a scene from Shrek?'_

"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Ribbons pointed out the obvious.

Jaune moved back when he saw Yang tense up and freaking _fire_ burst around her.

""I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!" she suddenly yelled.

It seemed to have its intended effect. Everyone fell quiet.

"Umm..Yang?" Ruby tugged on her "sister's" sleeve.

"What?!"

Ruby pointed up, where they all saw Weiss Schnee hanging on a gigantic bird's talons.

Jaune's eye twitched. '_Today's Tuesday, isn't it? I know that this kind of crap can only happen on a Tuesday.'_

"How could you leave me?!" Schnee called out from her vantage point.

"I said jump!" Ruby yelled back.

"She's gonna fall." Ribbons once again stated the obvious.

"She'll be fine." Ruby replied with exaggerated cheer.

That was when Schnee began to fall.

"She's falling." Ren supplied most helpfully.

Well, she could summon magic circles, right? Right?

'_Damn it all!' _and he pushed against the tree with all his might and leapt after the heiress.

"Oof!" he grunted as he managed to catch her midair.

"Hey, there, darling!" he told her with a forced smiled on his face. "I always knew you would fall for me someday!"

The heiress seemed speechless. Heck, she wasn't even glaring at him. In fact, she was looking down.

Yeah, he was that good.

'_Look down, dumbass.' _The analytical part of his mind informed him.

He looked down and realized 2 things. One, he was a frigging idiot. Two, He was a _frigging idiot._

"Meep." Was all he managed before gravity reared its ugly head.

'_Damn it, Arc, protect the girl at least!' _He twisted and held her in such way that he would fall first. With some luck, he would cushion the fall for her.

"Gah!" he breathed out when he slammed into the earth. _'I've been failing way too much in these last moments.'_

"Oof!" Schnee grunted. Jaune landed on his back and Schnee had fallen on his stomach.

They both took a moment to catch their breaths.

"My hero." Schnee suddenly said dryly.

Jaune managed a smile. '_More potential for another smartass!'_ he mentally cheered.

"You know what, you're alright." He told her.

Schnee huffed and looked away. "And I guess you are not without redeeming qualities."

"That has got to be most roundabout way of expressing gratitude that I have ever heard." Jaune replied with a wide grin on his face.

Schnee huffed again.

"Oh, and by the way, not that I enjoy having a cute girl on top of me, but would you mind getting off?" he asked.

"What?" she asked before realizing that she was basically straddling him. "WHAT?!"

"Why, you! Taking advantage like that! You're the worst!" she screamed at him and slapped him before getting up and storming off.

'_The hell happened to having redeeming qualities?' _

Jaune groaned. "Gah, my back."

And then the realization of what had happened hit him.

'_I'm alive... I'm…alive?!' _No normal human should have survived that with just a couple (he winced, when his felt his stomach. Okay, a lot) of bruises. He wouldn't even be surprised if he had a few cracked ribs. Still that should have hurt far more.

He looked down at his glowing hand. _'So this is Aura, huh?'_

He smiled gleefully. _'Oh, this is going to make hunting so much easier!' _he mentally declared as he began to remember all the creatures he had faced and how much they seemed to surpass humanity in terms of physical prowess. His good mood was ruined when he looked at where the heiress had gone and remembered that they were still being chased by 2 huge monsters that really seemed to want to ruin his day. Still, it seemed as though Weiss had somehow managed to freeze the Deathstalker in place for a while.

He also noticed the overgrown bird coming towards them.

Jaune looked at the assembled people. "Guys, that thing's circling back! Any plans?"

"There's no reason to stay around. Our mission was to retrieve a relic." Weiss commented. Jaune noticed that she was pointedly not looking at him.

"She's right. Let's just grab one and go back to the cliffs." Ruby added.

"Run and live, huh? I can get behind that!" Jaune declared before taking a rook. Ruby nodded and took a knight.

"Time we left." Ren said as soon as every pair had a piece.

"Right!"

* * *

"Run!" Jaune yelled.

"Oh this is just great!" Yang screamed as the Nevermore followed them through the air.

"Nora, distract it!" Ren yelled.

Nora pulled out a grenade launcher and began firing at the Nevermore.

'_Is that a freaking grenade launcher?' _No, he wasn't jealous. Seriously. He did not feel emasculated. At all. Really. Why would you even think that?

Still, Nora's volley of purple death seemed to be doing its job. They might just get out of this!

And that's when the Deathstalker popped out.

'_Damn it, Arc, don't jinx it like that!' _

He cursed and jumped towards Nora, who was still firing at the Nevermore, unaware of the hungry, hungry Stalker. He swore and turned around, running toward Nora and the Stalker while reaching into his belt.

"Nora, get down!" he yelled. Startled, Nora did just that and Jaune threw 2 concussive grenades at it.

The grenades bounced off lightly against the Stalker's head and exploded, causing the Stalker to stagger back, dazed, giving Schnee enough time to grab Nora and use her Devil May Cry magic to take Nora to relative safety. Jaune smiled grimly and threw another grenade at it, this time aiming right under it, hoping that its huge size would contain most of blast and maximize the damage done.

The concussive grenades wouldn't be so hard to replace but the RKG-3 anti-tank hand grenade he had just thrown would be expensive to replace.

'_Man, it's a good thing I actually managed to find my locker.'_

BOOM!

His eardrums were ringing and he everything he saw seemed to be out of place but he still ran forward. He could still hear the thing shrieking (even though the sound was heavily distorted) so he knew his job wasn't done yet.

'_I hate my job.'_

He pulled out 'Ole Trusty and tried his best to aim the thing's legs, which was made all the more difficult due to his shaky vision and the creature's frantic movements.

'_Wait for it…'_

Fortunately, his was a shotgun. He breathed in…

And he pulled the trigger. Not with normal bullets, no. That wouldn't work, judging by its carapace. Loaded with what he had come to call "Frosty" bullets, he fired.

'_Gotta love that pump action!'_

The Deathstalker's front legs froze and it stumbled. Jaune grinned and reached for another round when his vision restored itself and noticed the tail being reared back.

'_Oh, this is going to suck.'_

He bent his knees, preparing to throw himself to the side, even knowing that it was too late when 2 blurs flew diagonally from 2 sides, blocking the tail.

Jaune smiled and finished reloading. No Frosties this time. Incendiary rounds. And he aimed for the hopefully soft underbelly, hoping to kill the thing.

He pulled the trigger and immediately jumped back, avoiding the explosion of his buck shot.

The Deathstalker shrieked and reared back, causing the ice to crack

'_Are you serious?! How much ammo do I have to unload on this bitch to kill it?!'_

It left a bitter taste in his mouth but he knew that he'd failed. He had used up most of his special ammo and didn't think he'd be able to kill it with what he had left.

He turned and ran after Ribbons and Ren.

"Hey!" he called out while running. "Thanks for the assist!"

He wasn't too sure but it seemed as though they'd nodded back. Oh, well, more important things to worry about. He heard the ice shatter and the scuttling of legs.

He frowned and began to reload his gun. It probably wouldn't do much if the amount of ammo he's wasted on the thing was any indication but it was his best chance. Besides, shoot it enough and it would die, right?...Right?

…Right?

'_Man, why are all my cases so weird?'_

* * *

AN: Whew! Finally done. This chapter was difficult for me to write, as it's the first action scene I've ever written. Thoughts?

Also, chapters won't usually be this long; I was originally planning to separate it into 2, but eh, what the hell.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Monsters and teams**

Jaune was beginning to regret taking this case. Or rather, he was beginning to regret coming in as a student. He was a _hunter_, yes, but his prey was far different and most of his knowledge and skills revolved around identifying and taking down HIS kind of prey, not freaking overgrown scorpions.

He briefly looked back to see if the Deathstalker was still chasing them and noticed that yes, the jackass was still chasing them.

'_I would give my first born for a bazooka right now.'_

Still, he had noticed that it wasn't moving as quickly as before. Had he actually managed to hurt the behemoth? He certainly hoped so.

The ammo he'd spent on that thing was going to be difficult to replace.

Jaune forced down those thoughts. He had more important things to worry about. Like the angry, angry bird and the angry, angry scorpion that wanted to kill them and eat them. Maybe not even in that order.

Then his partner turned around and began firing at the Stalker with a rifle.

'_Did she just turn her spear into a freaking rifle?! A freaking RIFLE? Oh that's just unfair!'_

Ren jumped forward and began firing at the Stalker too. Jaune immediately examined his weapons.

'_M1911 pistols with axe blades. Freaking axe blades. Okay, where can I find their blacksmith and get him or her to forge me some transforming weapons? No, wait. Ruby said they designed their weapons. What the HELL is wrong with people here?! '_

He ran past the 2 nutcases with crazy, albeit awesome (although he wasn't going to say that out loud any time soon) weapons and was beginning to close in on the others. The group of hunter trainees ran towards some ruins before them. They were running over what was once a bridge when Jaune saw the Nevermore coming at them. He knew he wasn't going to make it.

'_Balls!' _and he threw himself back right as Tweety flew through the bridge, destroying it in the process.

'_Shouldn't have played the hero and tried to kill the scorpion…Damn it, now I'm stuck here!'_

Ribbons, Ren and Pyrrha were with him. He swore. He looked towards the Stalker.

His initial assessment had been right on the money; the stalker was moving slower than it had initially. That didn't mean it wasn't fast, of course. Just that this gave them a few precious seconds to formulate a plan.

"I don't suppose any of you have a plan?" he asked.

No answers.

Of course not.

"Alrighty then."

He made sure that 'Ole Trusty was locked and loaded.

"Here it comes."

Ren and Pyrrha began firing at it again and Ribbons started to run towards it. She jumped and started slashing around her with a…pistol chain whip? Oh, whatever. As impressive as her attack was, the Stalker was not amused and swatted her with its pincers, making her fly back. She landed face first.

But in that moment, Jaune noticed something. 3 somethings actually. He grinned viciously.

"Pyrrha, Ren! Aim at its left side!" he yelled. Then he ran towards Ribbons and helped her up.

Observation number one: He had actually managed to hurt it. That thing was favoring its right side.

"C'mon, get up, you're the only here with the precision I need." He muttered.

Ribbons nodded at him in gratitude and looked at him, awaiting instructions.

Jaune felt like smiling again. "Ribbons, I err…I mean…"

Ribbons looked at him with amusement. "Blake."

Jaune nodded back. "Jaune Arc." With the introductions out of the way, he pointed at the Stalker. "I'm going to fire at it at close range. Once I pull back I need you to slash away at the area I fired at."

She nodded.

"Ren, distract it!" he yelled. Technically, Pyrrha might have played better distraction, having a shield and all, but her shots were far more precise. And he had noticed that the stalker was wobbling now; their shots were taking their toll.

Ren ran at the stalker while firing at it. The stalker brought down its tail on her(him?) but she(he?) dodged lightly to the side and jumped towards the tail and held on to it.

Jaune both smiled and gaped. It was a strange expression. He smiled because Ren playing a far better distraction than he could have hoped for. He gaped because that move was so insanely,suicidally _awesome_.

Jaune shook his head and took a deep breath. Time to do his part. He ran towards the distracted Stalker. "Pyrrha! Cover me!" he yelled. He briefly saw Blake and Pyrrha running after him. He needed to time this carefully. The stalker noticed them and decided to stop playing with the fly on its tail. Even when the only barely able to move, the thing was clearly dangerous. One of its pincers lashed out but Pyrrha was there faster and her shield was apparently quite sturdy.

She deflected the attack and slashed away at its pincer.

'_A sword now?! Oh, you have got to be kidding me!'_

He saw the other pincer coming at her and cursed. He could shoot at it but that would reduce the chance of his little plan working. He really needed a shield.

It was fortunate that Blake was there to pull Pyrrha out of the way. The pincer passed by without doing any damage and Jaune's way forward was clear. He ran forward while aiming.

He grinned savagely.

Observation number two: His grenades had done way more damage than he had originally thought.

He aimed right between its fangs.

Observation number three: His incendiary round fired at close range had furthered the amount of damage done.

He pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession and hoped to all the gods that his Aura would shield him from the explosions. The resulting explosions sent him flying back but he caught sight of Blake slashing away at it right where he had fired.

The Deathstalker shrieked as Blake slashed away at it. The 3 grenades and 3 incendiary rounds aimed roughly at the same place had severely weakened it carapace. Enough for Blake to slice away bits away from it at any rate.

The Stalker smacked Blake away again but it was clear that it was hurt. It was staggering and bleeding profusely.

Jaune struggled to get up. His Aura had, in fact, protected him but he felt more tired than he ever had. He got up and blearily saw the others still fighting it, although the fight was no longer as one sided.

'_Yeah, how do you like them apples?' _

A couple more hits ought to do it. Most of the Stalker's protection around the head area was gone, the carapace too badly damaged. All they had to do was smash at it with enough strength or pierce its skull. He pulled out more bullets. Normal ones this time; he'd just used up all his special rounds.

'_Man, I can't believe that worked. Hey, everyone, let's listen to the guy that barely has any idea what Grimm are!' _

He finally managed to push himself up and finished reloading his shotgun.

Then Nora appeared out of nowhere and smashed the Stalker with a freaking Warhammer. A WARHAMMER. It was pure bad luck that the Stalker had been flailing around wildly in pain and Nora hit a pincer instead of the head. That would probably have killed it if she had slammed into its head.

Still, the pincer was badly hurt and he'd wager the Stalker wouldn't be able to use it anymore.

Jaune looked at the Warhammer that had previously been a grenade launcher.

'_You know what, I give up. You hear that?! You win, Beacon!' _He just wanted to crawl home and go back to the life that actually made _sense_.

The Stalker seemed incredibly dazed and its pincer swing seemed almost drunk. It still managed to hit Nora, sending her flying back. She hit Blake and Blake was knocked off the bridge.

"Nooo! Blake!" Jaune yelled. He ran towards the edge and saw Blake throw her gun knife whip chain thing and pull herself up, towards Tweety.

His eyes widened when he saw her slashing away it before jumping off, landing close to her partner. He sighed in relief. She'd probably be fine.

That was when he was reminded of the trouble at hand. The Stalker managed to throw Ren off and he slammed against a wall. He didn't get up. The Stalker wasn't dead yet, although it certainly seemed be on its last leg. Both figuratively and literally. Then he noticed that Pyrrha and Nora were looking at him.

'_Are they actually waiting for my orders? Really guys? I have far less experience with Grimm than all of you!' _Oh, well.

The stalker was moving its pincer wildly. They were too far away for it but Ren could still be hurt.

"Nora, fire some more grenades at it!" he yelled.

Nora immediately complied, and the Stalker immediately brought its pincer back to its head, trying to fend off the rain of purple death. Ren was mostly safe now.

'_Oh, no, you son of a bitch, you're not getting away!' _

He saw the tail and grinned. Ren had truly done a fantastic job.

"Pyrrha, aim for its tail! Cut that bulb off!"

"With pleasure." And she threw her shield at it.

Jaune tried not too gape. _'Okay, note to self, do NOT mess with Wonder Woman.'_

The shield sliced its bulb off and returned towards Pyrrha.

'_HOW?! That's not…I mean…Seriously, how the hell do they make weapons like these?!'_

The bulb fell. Unable to move, with one pincer blocking Nora's purple death, and with its other pincer out of commission, the stalker couldn't avoid what came next. The bulb fell and pierced its already weakened head. The scorpion shrieked one last time before finally falling.

"Did we…Did we do it?" he asked

"I think so."

"Good." And he promptly fell over.

"Jaune?! Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked him.

"Yeah. I'm just exhausted." _'And I'm pretty sure my ribs are cracked.'_

"It must have been the Aura. Yours was just awakened today and I saw you using a lot of it." His partner replied thoughtfully.

"Sure, why not." _'Pretty sure it had nothing to do with the amount of adrenaline flooding my body.'_

"Where's Nora?" he asked.

"She's helping Ren up."

"Cool."

'_All's well, that end well…Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?'_

"Oh gods, what about Tweety?!" he suddenly asked.

"Tweety?" Pyrrha seemed confused.

"Ah, right, the ah…Nevermore? You know, the giant bird."

"You called the Nevermore, a B class Grimm that gives experienced hunters trouble, Tweety?"

"Well I wasn't gonna call it Big Bird."

She giggled. She looked cute when she did.

"I think they just took care of it." She told him.

Jaune sighed in relief. "Cool. Hey, you mind if I take a nap?"

"What? No, you can't! We're still in the forest!"

Beat.

"Jaune?"

"Jaune?"

"Wake up, Arc!" she yelled.

"Balls, don't do that!" Jaune suddenly jolted up.

"We have to get out of this forest before you can sleep." She told him.

"But mooooom…" but he did get up. "Fine, let's go. I'd much rather sleep in a bed anyways."

* * *

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin called.

'_Wait, did he just say Winchester?'_

They were in the auditorium, where the teams would be assembled.

"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!" Ozpin declared.

'_Winchester, huh? I wonder if…'_

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." Ozpin spoke up, interrupting Jaune's thought process.

'_Damn it, old man!'_

Nora was hugging Ren and Pyrrha was smiling lightly.

"Led by..."

'_Prolly Pyrrha. She certainly has the qualifications.' _

…Jaune Arc!"

'_Called it! Wait wha-'_

And then Pyrrha gave him a celebratory punch.

He almost fell. _'I've been punched by beasts and it hurt less!' _he mentally shrieked.

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin looked at him.

"Thank you." Jaune answered. He felt unnerved. The man seemed nonchalant but his eyes were examining him thoroughly.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin continued.

Jaune let out a breathe he hadn't realized he was holding. Ozpin knew something.

"The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... "

'_Schnee? She has the influence and she's not that bad.'_

"Ruby Rose!" Ozpin finished.

Jaune gaped. _'Okay, who's in charge of choosing the teams and what is he smoking? I mean, really? The idiot that barely knew what he was doing and the lost puppy that exploded on her first day? Is everyone here insane?!'_

Schnee seemed just as surprised as him. Blake looked…Well, she looked great, but her face showed no emotion.

Yang, on the other hand, "I'm so proud of you!" she squealed before tackling her "sister".

'_Well, this ought to be an…'_

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an…" Ozpin was mumbling.

'…_Interesting week.'_

"…Interesting year."

* * *

AN: I hate writing action scenes. Seriously. They suck. Okay, well, not really. Not when written by a decent author. Anyways, end of the initiation! Things will finally be moving more towards the Supernatural in the coming chapters.

Well, R&R and thank you for reading thus far.


	5. Interlude 1: Ruby

**Interlude: Jaune? He seems like…**

**Ruby POV**

Ruby didn't know what to expect when she arrived at Beacon Academy. She certainly wasn't expecting to explode the first day after her evil, evil sister left her behind. Still, she'd met Jaune that day, and he seemed okay. She would admit that his first impression was…well, the guy was vomiting for most of the flight.

But then he'd helped her out after that mean princess had yelled at her.

"Looks like you could use a hand." She looked up and saw a blonde boy smiling down at her. She nodded at him and tried not to look like a dork.

He pulled her up.

"Thanks." She said. Ah, the beauty of the word "thanks". It was a monosyllable, which meant she wouldn't come off as a dork and it was still in use so it had to be socially acceptable, right?

"Eh, don't sweat it, kiddo." The blonde replied.

'_Kiddo?!'_

She wasn't a kid! She drank her milk and complained loudly about her problems to her sister, like a responsible adult!

"I am not a kid!" and she gave him her most menacing glare.

"Right, right, sorry about that." He replied, holding his arms out in a placating manner.

Yeah, serves him right! But he did apologize, so she decided to forgive him and drop the glare.

Then she realized something. This was the guy that puking his guts out during the flight!

"Hey, aren't you Vomit Boy?" her foot in mouth syndrome kicked in (Get it? Foot in mouth? Kick?) again.

The blonde sighed. "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

She had to explain! What if she had just scared off a potential friend? She needed friends here, in Beacon.

"I'm sorry, it's just that it's the first thing that came to mind!"

He smiled at her.

She internally cheered.

"And I'm pretty sure that Crater Face is the first thing that's going to come to mind when I look at you." He said.

The internal cheering turned into internal cries for her to plant Legos on his room so he'd step on them.

"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" she exclaimed indignantly.

And totally not her fault. Really. What was she expected to do, hold in her sneeze? She'd heard that her head could explode if she did that! Although, then again, she had exploded even though she had sneezed…

"Well, whatever, the name's Jaune Arc." he introduced himself.

She took that as a sign that she'd won. Why else would he change the subject?

"Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it!" he continued. If it hadn't been for his eyebrow wiggling and exaggerated manner, she would have thought that he meant it seriously.

Still, that had been funny and she giggled. "Do they now?"

Hey, the banter thing was kinda fun! Maybe this is why Yang liked to talk to others!

"Well, that's what my mommy said…" he replied, and again, his exaggerated manner amused her and she smiled. Then she realized something.

'_I haven't introduced myself yet!' _

"Oh, right, my name's Rose. Ruby Rose." She told him. She then noticed that she had introduced herself in the same way that a certain spy with an accent had.

'_Oh, yeah, that was cool! High five, me!'_

Jaune smiled at her. "Nice to meet you."

And, what was she supposed to do now? Darn, Yang made this look so easy! She decided to fall back on her instincts to navigate the social labyrinth.

"So, I've got this thing." She said and began to pull out Crimson Rose.

She also noticed Jaune give her a strange look when she said that.

Oh, popsicles, was she not supposed to show off her weapon? It was a combat school, so wasn't thing normal? Too late to back out now though.

She transformed Crescent Rose into Scythe form. She looked at Jaune's face.

His eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open. "Holy crap, that's one badass scythe!"

She let herself relax. "It's also a customizable, high impact velocity sniper rifle!" she added proudly. Oh, she loved her baby very, very much.

"So what have you got?" she asked him.

Jaune pulled out a shotgun. "Nothing as impressive. Just a sawed off double barrel one pistol grip shotgun."

She took it and examined it, trying not to let her inner dork out. What did it do? What did it transform into? Ooh, so many questions!

"So what does it do?" she asked.

"It shoots things." He replied dryly.

Disappointment. Sure, the gun was cool but every weapon had to have multiple forms or be capable of transforming! That was the rule!

"That's it?"

"Well, I got it because it's easy to carry around and I can modify the ammo." He replied.

Ooh, now that sounded exciting.

"Really? What kind of ammo?" she asked, imagining all the kinds of bullets and giving an internal SQUEE! when she imagined getting special ammo for her baby. Ooooh, yes. Crescent Rose deserved nothing less than the best!

"Eh, just bullets with different assorted fun effects like explosions, freezing, and the like." He replied.

She had to stop herself from SQUEEing out loud.

"That is so cool" she squealed. darn it, she was going to have to work on getting the squealing under control.

Then Jaune gave her an odd look.

She suddenly felt nervous. Had she scared him off with her dorky nature? Or with her squealing?

"You mean to tell that despite using a badass customizable sniper you've never tried using different types of ammo?" he asked her.

She felt a wave of relief going through her body. In fact, she started to hope. He seemed like the kind of guy that liked weapons too! Oh, that would be so cool! They could talk about blades, guns, bullets, the newest war machines…And people would give him strange looks too! She wouldn't be the only one!

"Well, dust cartridges are kind of expensive and my previous academy only provided the standard kind of ammo…" she told him.

"Seriously?" Jaune asked. "No. I can't let this stand. You have a totally badass scythe/sniper and you have never even tried using an explosive bullet?" Jaune seemed indignant on her behalf.

This was good. Anyone who got angry over their friend not getting explosive bullets was a good person in her book. Besides, he called her Crescent Rose badass. He obviously had good taste.

Jaune sighed. Then he nodded. "Okay, first chance we get, I'm taking you to my arms dealer. He's kind of an ass but he's fair and offers good prices."

Explosive bullets? Good…prices? Could she hope?

"Really? You'd do that for me?" she asked. If this was some kind of prank she would have to shoot him. No one should take a maiden's heart and play with it like that!

"Sure, it's not as if he'd mind the additional business." Jaune said, avoiding the fate of becoming her next target in target practice.

She would have glomped Jaune is she wasn't too busy imagining herself blowing up Grimm with her baby. Oh, yes! They would have so much fun!

"Thanks!" she almost screamed in excitement.

And that's how Ruby knew that Jaune was a friend. Anyone willing to introduce you to their arms dealer was definitely a good person.

* * *

AN: As you might have guessed, this is not an actual chapter. It was just something I put together while wringing my muse for new ideas. So, does Ruby feel like a different character or does she come across as a Jaune copy? I'm trying to write different characters that all feel unique so tell me how it went! Also, should I write more of these interludes? It was fun to write but I won't make you guys read them if you don't like them.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Clues and trails**

His internal clock woke him up at 4. He hated his internal clock.

'_What now?'_ he wondered.

He was willing to bet that most people were still asleep. Lucky jerks. He briefly considered trying to go back to sleep before discarding that idea. He'd tried before and it only made him feel drowsy. Besides, this might be a good chance to get some information. Just because the students were asleep didn't mean he couldn't get some work done.

He got up and left quietly, trying to avoid waking up his team mates.

'_Team mates, huh?' _

The words "team mates" still felt…strange to him. Not that they were bad people, of course. It was just that most _hunters_ usually worked alone so they didn't use terms like "team mate" much. "Partner", maybe, but not "team mates".

He forced those thoughts away; he had more important things to deal with.

'_Okay, Arc, get your head into the game. What comes first?'_

Right.

Time to go examine the victims. From what he remembered, the comatose victims were in the infirmary. Beacon did have one of the best medical teams in the world so that wasn't that surprising.

What was surprising was the fact that he wouldn't have to dress up as a medical student, coroner, law enforcer, etc. He could definitely get used to this.

'_Now where was the infirmary?'_ he wondered. Fortunately, he spotted a janitor ahead of him.

"Excuse me, sir." He walked up towards him.

"Yeah, what d'you need?" he asked gruffly.

"I forgot my asthma medication and need to go to infirmary. Could you please point me there?" he lied flawlessly.

"Go to the lecture hall. From there, go right and take the stairs. It's the only blue door so you shouldn't miss it." The janitor replied.

"Blue door?" he asked, confused. _'Why the heck would they make the infirmary door blue?'_

Brown, black and white he could understand. He could even see red. But blue?

"Some students got drunk one night and painted all the doors in the academy. From what I understand, the headmaster was so impressed he decided to keep one of them."

'_Oh wow. That's…Damn.'_

"Really?"

"Yeah, it confused everyone else too. Those students were lucky not to be expelled, if you ask me. We had to replace every damn door in this place. "The janitor grumbled.

'_And that's my cue to leave.'_

"Thank you, but I really should go now." He said politely.

"Stupid students and their stupid pranks. Should've made them change the doors…"

Jaune could still hear the janitor mumbling as he left.

As far as pranks go, that would be stupid if this place weren't full of crazies with even crazier weapons. And they managed to get away with it without anyone noticing what they were doing? In the middle of the night? And they were drunk while doing it? Okay, that was impressive.

'_Still, I bet I could do better…Maybe hack into the computers and make the speakers play Caramelldansen at full volume for a week? Nah, I hate that song.'_

He was wondering whether he could get away with cutting the statue's head when he reached the infirmary.

'_Cutting the head would be stupid. Besides, the Simpsons already did it. Also, that guy is supposed to be my great-great grandpa or something.'_

He knocked on the door.

'_Okay, enough, Arc. You have bigger things to worry about.'_

A woman came out. "Yes?"

The nurse, he assumed.

"I'm not feeling well. Could I lie down for a while?" He asked trying his best to look tired and sick.

The nurse studied him for a moment.

Jaune was beginning to wonder whether he should have dressed up as something when she nodded.

"Alright, come in. Sit down on an empty bed" she told him.

He mentally sighed in relief and walked in.

The room was large. There were 8 beds, 4 in each side of the room. There was also desk and a chair near the entrance.

He looked at the beds. There were 4 students in them.

"So, what happened to them?" he asked.

"Oh, don't worry about them. We're here to fix you up."

Jaune turned around and saw the nurse holding really, really large syringe.

"Umm…That's not for me, is it?" he asked nervously.

"It might be, depending on what you have. Now could you describe how you're feeling?" the nurse told him with an innocent smile.

'_Why do I feel like she didn't buy my whole I feel sick routine?'_

"I just don't feel so good. I think I might have the flu or something." He tried, he seriously tried to make it look real.

The nurse just smiled and he felt more terrified than he ever had.

"Alrighty then! This injection I have right here ought to fix you right up!"

'Said the executioner.'

"I don't think that will be necessary!" he replied hastily while backing up.

"Oh, it is completely necessary. You don't feel good, right?" she asked.

'_Oh gods, that smile…That freaking smile…Make it stopMAKEITSTOP'_

"I feel fine now!" and he realized he had hit the wall while backing up.

Sure, he could try to knock her out, but people often underestimated nurses. The truth was that they tended to be pretty tough, since not all patients were…mentally stable. Considering the academy he was in, he really did NOT want to see what kind of weapon she had.

"Oh? Are you sure? I wouldn't want any student to feel bad out there." she asked him with that ever present smile.

"Y-Yes! It was probably just an episode or something!"

"Of what? Maybe the hay fever? The flu? Or maybe the bullcrap?" she asked way too innocently.

He didn't know what to do. He honestly had no idea what to do in a situation like this.

"I..I just…" he tried.

"Look, kid, I understand it's your first day but there's no reason to be nervous! Okay, fine, maybe a little, but you got past the initiation, right? You'll be fine."

Jaune saw his chance and took it. "I-Uh, Thank you." He said, trying to look like a nervous student. It wasn't hard. She scared the hell out of him.

The nurse shook her head. "You will not believe how many come in during their first days to fake it and get out of classes. Although you're the first one to ever come this early…"

Jaune chuckled nervously. "Right! I-I'm sorry for wasting your time!"

She sighed. "Ah, it's okay. I've just been taking care of those 4." And she nodded towards the 4 students lying on their respective beds.

Jaune saw another chance. "Oh, right, I've been meaning to ask: What happened?" he asked her. He was hoping that he hadn't received a heart attack for nothing; she would hopefully give him some useful info.

The nurse sighed again, more resigned this time. "I don't know. They were fine one day before they fell into a coma."

"All of them at the same time?"

"Nah, one by one." She pointed at a red headed girl. "She was the first one."

Interesting.

"Did you notice anything strange about them before they fell into a coma?"

The nurse looked at him sharply. "Well, after she fell into the coma-"she pointed at a brown haired boy. "-he came to me. Said he was feeling tired and was afraid of ending up like her."

Very interesting.

"Why would he be afraid of ending up like her?" Was there a common link between them?

He nurse shrugged. "They're team mates. He said she was feeling more and more tired all the time."

Very, very interesting.

"Are they all team mates?"

"No, those 2 and those 2 come from different teams."

"I see." He nodded.

The nurse was still studying him. "You know, most people wouldn't ask so many questions."

Jaune shrugged and tried to look innocent. "I…I'm just curious is all. I mean, it's my first day! I just wanted to know if this was normal!"

The nurse seemed satisfied with that. "Oh, don't worry; it isn't."

Jaune tried to look reassured. "Oh okay, that's a relief then!"

She smiled at him. "Well, okay, then get out. Don't you have to get ready for your classes?"

Jaune chuckled awkwardly. "I guess you're right! I should go then."

The nurse nodded at him. "Good luck! And don't come back unless you're really hurt or I might really have to use that needle on you!"

Jaune gulped. "R-Right!" and he turned to leave.

He'd reached the door when stopped and turned to look at her. "Can I ask you one last thing?"

The nurse shrugged and nodded. "Sure thing."

"Why haven't they been moved to a hospital? I mean…I know Beacon has a world renowned medical faculty, but shouldn't they have been moved?"

The nurse's eyebrow rose. "You know, that really wasn't what I was expecting. And to answer your question, we would have but we noticed that the first 2 were getting better ever since we moved them here."

What? But why? What so special about this room? Or was whatever treatment they were giving them working?

"What do you mean?" he asked.

The nurse chuckled. "So much for the last question."

Jaune chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I'm just really curious about them."

The nurse shook her head. "I told you not to worry. You're gonna be fine."

'_Lady, it's not me I'm worried about.'_

"I'd still like to know please."

The nurse shrugged again. "Look at them."

Jaune walked back into the room and towards the patients.

'_What the?'_

The redhead and the brown haired boy did look better. Their skin had more color and their breathing wasn't as labored.

"As you might have noticed, their skin looks better, their breathing is almost normal and their EEG's are almost normal compared to those other 2. And even they're starting to improve."

He turned to the other two and examined them carefully. There was a black haired boy and a blonde girl. Their lips were slightly blue, they looked pale and their breathing was heavy.

'_You mean they looked worse?'_

"But why? Why are they recovering?" he asked.

"I honestly don't know, kid. None of the medication we were giving them seemed to be working. They just started to recover one day." She replied while shaking her head.

Jaune nodded. "Okay, thank you, umm…"

The nurse gave him a small smile. "Ako. Call me Nurse Ako."

"Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

'_Well, mostly. That syringe is freaking terrifying. And her smile. Oh gods, the smile…'_

"Well, then, Mr. Arc, you should really go get ready for class."

He nodded and smiled at her. "Thank you. For everything." And he closed the blue door behind him.

It had been freaking terrifying, but he'd gotten a lot of info.

He was going go find the redhead's team mates. The one that weren't taking a nap that is. From what Ako had told him, she was the first victim and her partner the second. Which didn't explain why the remaining 2 team mates weren't lying in the beds in the infirmary too. There had to be a connection here. He was also going to question the other 2 victims' team mates, of course.

Hopefully they'd be able to shed some light into this because he had no idea why the victims hadn't died or why they were recovering.

Still, it was time to maintain his façade as a normal (okay, fine, as normal as you could get in this academy) student. Which meant he had to attend classes. The thought still made him smile.

He looked at his watch. 6:45. Perfect. He still had plenty of time to get back to his dorm and "wake up" when his team mates did. Speaking of which, it turned out that the Ren chick was a guy. He'd been horrified that he had thought of "her" as cute. At least Nora and Pyrrha had gotten some good laughs out of that one. Ren had been…both disgusted and amused.

"I'm sorry, Jaune, you're cute too but I really don't swing that way."

He had had to stop himself from shooting the smug "boy" a little.

He had also punched the wall to feel like a man again. Although he still had no idea why punching the wall made him feel like a man. Or why that one _hunter_ had told him that was one of the ways to make sure he felt like man again. So far, all he'd gotten was a bruise in his knuckles. Although the Aura helped; he'd noticed that his Aura also made him heal faster.

He had been really, really excited about that. After years of getting his ass handed to him, he finally had an edge that might let him let him fight on equal footing!

He reached the door to his-no. _Their _room and pulled out his not ipad.

'_Man, can you imagine if you'd lost your Scroll?'_

He had to admit that the academy had some nifty locks. They all required a specific not ipad signal to open. So if you lost your not ipad, you had to hope that your team mates weren't jerks.

He opened the door and quietly snuck into his bed.

'_Man, I wish we all had our separate rooms.'_

Not that he minded seeing 2 cute girls in their PJ's. It's just that it would have made everything easier.

He reached under his bed and pulled out his ruck sack. It wasn't the best hiding place, but he needed it somewhere nearby. All his most important possessions were inside that rucksack! He opened it and pulled out a leather bound journal.

That journal was his most prized possession. He had received it from the man that had saved his life. It also contained all the knowledge that he'd collected on all the things that went bump in the night.

'_Maybe a vengeful spirit? Nah, they go for the kill…Vampires? Nah, I would've noticed the bite marks on their neck…Man, what kind of creature inflicts comas on their victims?'_

* * *

AN:

So, not much of teams RWBY and the NPR of JNPR this chapter. They will be making more important appearances later on. Props to anyone that can guess what Jaune's hunting; I did leave some clues behind!

As for the 4 comatose victims, they're just OCs that I created with the express purpose of dying and/or falling into comas to set off cases. And now to do something I should have done way back: address reviews! (If I didn't address yours directly it's because I have a word budget and am running out. Doesn't mean it's not appreciated!):

**Blame Blade**: I have never actually read the Dresden Files although I have heard good things about it.

**AndreiN00B**: Glad you enjoyed it!

**Nasha Rei-Kun**: Thanks! I was trying to make Jaune funnier but not too different form his RWBY self.

**Melfice-sama**: Good to hear. One of the things that worries me the most about writing this is that all my characters will start feeling the same.

**forget the rest**: That's a relief. To be honest, the only reason I got into writing fanfiction was to practice for the TOEFL's, so hearing that makes me feel better.

**MrSlinkerman**: Haha thanks! I would love to read your version of it if you ever decide to write it!


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Façade**

Jaune "woke up" at the same time as Pyrrha and Nora when he heard a scream from the room next to theirs.

"GOOD MORNING, TEAM RWBY!" Ruby's voice yelled excitedly.

'_Damn and I thought Weiss was the screamer.'_

He yawned. "Hey Pyrrha, hey Nora. Sleep well?"

"Good morning, and I did, thank you." Pyrrha replied.

"Morning!" Nora exclaimed.

She then turned towards Ren and took a running leap towards him.

"WAKE UP, SLEEPY HEAD!" she screamed as she landed on him.

Jaune winced. _'Oh, good Lord. That girl's gonna kill him someday.'_

Pyrrha also winced. "I can't help but think that there might be safer ways to wake him up."

"Better him than us, partner." Jaune replied sagely.

"5 more minutes…" Ren grumbled.

'_How the hell is he still sleepy after that?!'_

"Wake up, wake up! The sun's up and we have legs to break!" Nora kept trailing on.

Jaune winced again. _'For some reason, I don't think that she means that metaphorically.'_

"I'm going to go get ready. See you later." Pyrrha told him before going to the bathroom.

Jaune looked at Nora torturing Ren and decided to make a hasty escape before she turned her attention on him. He was about to exit the room when heard a loud "BANZAI!" from the next room.

He stopped. _'What the hell? No, wait, stop. Remember what Nietzsche said about the abyss, Arc. Forget about it.'_

He decided to crawl into a corner, make himself look as small as possible and pulled out his journal again. Might as well use the time on something productive, right?

Pyrrha came out in her school uniform. She looked…cute. Nora walked into the bathroom next, saying that Ren could come in and rub her back but only as friends or something.

Jaune had no idea whether he envied or pitied the boy at that moment.

"Hey, what are you reading?"

Jaune immediately closed his journal in alarm.

Pyrrha was looking at him curiously. Ren was also examining him now.

"Oh, it's just a journal an important friend gave me." He replied easily.

"What's it about?" Ren asked.

"Oh, just his memoirs and the like." He replied. It was even true in a way.

Pyrrha seemed satisfied, but Ren was still studying him carefully.

Ren was…more perceptive than he'd given him credit for. He was going to have to be careful around him.

"Ren! It's your turn!" a voice interrupted them.

Jaune almost sighed in relief when Nora came out and it became Ren's turn to use the bathroom.

"Ohh, ohh, do you need me to wash your back? But only as friends!"

Poor, lucky bastard.

Jaune came out of the bathroom, feeling refreshed. The school uniform was annoying though. He'd always hated ties. Stupid things, impossible to tie and always way too tight.

"So, what class do we have first?" he asked them. He had to admit that he was actually curious now. Aura had opened up a completely new world for him and the more he knew about Grimm, the better.

Pyrrha looked down at her not ipad. "It says we have Grimm studies first."

Grimm studies? Okay, now that sounded interesting. He'd almost gotten killed by 2 of them, so he wanted to know more about them. Know thy enemy, and all.

"Hmm…Sounds interesting. At what time is it, anyways?"

"It says here it's at 9 o'clock." Pyrrha replied.

Wait, 9? But wasn't it 8:55 right no-

His musings were interrupted when a voice outside.

"To class!" And, that was Ruby yelling.

He looked at his watch. Yup, definitely 8:55.

"We're late!" and they all ran towards their classes.

* * *

Grimm studies was…Not what he had been expecting. Besides the fact that it was taught by the most boring man ever, he wasn't actually learning anything important. Professor Port was very…self-confident. Although he did have a pretty kickass mustache.

The man had spent the first 30 minutes talking about how incredible he was. Oh, and he'd also winked at Yang flirtatiously. Yang had groaned and looked away.

'_Yeah, truly, Adonis reborn. A god amongst men!'_

He'd actually spent most of the class studying his classmates. Ruby and Weiss were having trouble getting along. Blake and Yang seemed to get along fine, although he did notice that Yang was trying to make Blake more…sociable. Ren was actually sleeping and even Nora seemed subdued. NORA.

'_Okay, maybe Professor Mario is actually good for something.'_ He mused as he looked at the drowsy girl sitting next to Ren.

His partner, on the other hand, was desperately trying to pay attention. He felt sorry for her.

He began listening again to his "teacher" when he suddenly asked them a question.

'_D'aww, crap, what'd he ask?'_

Fortunately for him, Weiss raised her hand. "I do, sir!"

'_Now what's this about?'_

"Well, then, let's find out!" before gesturing behind him.

'_The answer's 42!'_

"Step forward, and face your opponent!" Portman finished with a flourish.

'_Wait what?'_

* * *

Professor Mario had apparently captured a grimm. And Weiss was going to fight it now.

'_Okay, fine, credit where credit is due. This class is more interesting than I'd originally thought.'_

The fight had begun with her team shouting encouragement and-

'_Is that a flag? With their team name on it? A freaking flag? Where'd she even find the time for that?!...Where can I get?'_

Professor Mario opened a cage and Pumba came out.

'_A pig Grimm? Really? Is It edible?'_

Weiss had lost her weapon and she had been forced to roll away. Probably due to her being easily distracted.

'_Trouble in paradise, sweetheart? Stop yelling at the puppy and focus one the fight, Schnee!'_

Weiss either really liked Ruby or really disliked her. He hoped for every man's sake that it was the first. Oh, and for the sake of their team's dynamics too, of course.

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" Ruby tried to help.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss snarled back.

'_Ah! Weiss must be the type of girl that likes to be on top. Yeah, I can see how not getting a position of authority would bum her out. And goddamn it, brain, get out of the gutter!'_

Still, Weiss had managed to stab through Pumba's belly, killing it, so good on her. And good on Ruby, for noticing that.

"Bravo Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" Professor Mario was laying it on a bit thick. Schnee seemed to love the attention thought.

'_Ooh, I sense daddy issues here.'_

He barely heard Mario assigning them work before dismissing them.

Jaune saw Weiss leaving quickly, before anyone else.

He shrugged. He liked them yes, but not enough to get involved in this particular mess. Besides, this was something they'd both have to work on, alone. Also, he had more important things to do. He turned to look at his team.

"Hey, guys, I'm gonna ask Mari-Err…Professor Port a few questions. See ya later!" he told his team mates before leaving them.

"…Did he just call Professor Port Mario?"

* * *

He approached the Professor. Every other student had left already.

"Professor, can I ask you some questions?" he asked him.

"Well, of course, my lad! My favorite color is gray, I prefer red wine over white-"

Jaune had to stop himself from face palming right there.

"Actually, Professor, I wanted to ask you about something else." He cut in before having to listen to Mario's autobiography.

"Oh? Ask away, lad!" Mario replied heartily.

"It's about the students that fell into comas."

Mario's demeanor changed. He suddenly seemed more focused.

'_Are you serious? Did I run into a case of crouching moron, hidden badass? Well, he did manage to capture that Grimm, alive, so maybe…'_

"What about them?" Mario asked, his voice no longer cordial.

"Could you tell who their team mates are? I want to-"

"No. Those students have already gone through a lot. They don't need someone asking more questions." Professor Port interrupted him.

'_Sigh, I should have snuck in as a law enforcer.'_

"Please, Professor, I just want to ask them about the symptoms they showed before they fell into their comas! I feel that as a team leader, I should be more aware of the things that could affect my team mates!"

'_That has got to be the best pile of BS you've come up with in a long time. Good one.'_

Not that he was being completely dishonest. He did care about his team mates. Somewhat.

Port was studying him carefully.

"Get out, Mr. Arc. Ask the nurse if you must."

'_Goddamn it all.'_

"Right. Thank you for your time, Professor." And he left. Maybe the library had records on students? Yearbooks?

Damn, they probably did. Should have tried that first.

He walked into Pyrrha when he left the classroom.

"Wha-Pyrrha? What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"I was waiting for you." She told him in a tone of voice that suggested this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why?" he was truly confused now.

"Because that's what friends do. C'mon, let's go back to our room." She replied, definitely not rolling her eyes.

"R-right!"

'_Friends, huh? Damn, this is not gonna make this case any easier…'_

* * *

Jaune mentally sighed. Well, going to that class had been a waste of time. He really should have spent that time on the library. Oh, well.

Team JNPR were all in their room, working on the assignment that Mario had given them.

Jaune mentally sighed again.

'_Why am I even working on this? I'm not even gonna be staying long!'_

He got up. "Sorry, guys, I forgot something!"

"Jaune? What is it?" Pyrrha asked him.

"Ooh, ooh, is it something to eat? Because you should share!" Nora was excitable as always.

Ren was observing him.

'_C'mon, Arc, you're good at lying! Come up with something!'_

"I left my favorite pen in Mari-err…Port's classroom!" he tried.

"I'll go with you." Pyrrha replied.

"Uh no! That won't be necessary! I can-" he stopped when he noticed the slightly hurt expression in her face.

'_Damn it, damn it all!'_

Nora was glaring at him now. He felt a shiver run down his spine.

'_What is it with this academy and terrifying women?!'_

"I just don't wanna be a bother! I'm sure I can find it and you could get a lot more work done!" he tried to backtrack.

Nora was still glaring at him.

"It's really not a bother. C'mon, let's go." Pyrrha told him.

At least she seemed to have bought that. Although he had no idea what to do now. What he supposed to do, go look for a non-existent pen?

"Sure." He felt himself say.

'_Damn it, Arc, what the hell?'_

They both left the room.

* * *

"So what do you think of Beacon so far?" Pyrrha asked him.

'_It's insane, the people are loony, the classes strange and I'm pretty sure I've never felt so out of place before in my entire life.'_

"It's fun and full of interesting people." He said out loud.

"Really? I'm glad to hear that!" and she smiled at him.

He smiled back. "What about you? How are you doing?" he asked her.

"It's interesting. Okay, the first class was kind of boring at the beginning but the practical demonstrations seem fun!"

'_Glad to see someone's having fun…Although…I guess this hasn't been all that bad.'_

"Hey, uh, Pyrrha?"

"Yeah?" she asked.

"I…Uh…I might have lied about the pen." He told her. He couldn't afford to waste time hunting for an imaginary object.

Huh. That actually described a lot of his cases.

Pyrrha stopped and turned to look at him. "You lied? Why?"

"I..uh… I wanted to go the library." Jaune replied.

'_Why the hell am I stuttering?'_

"But why lie about it?" Pyrrha seemed confused.

"I...I was looking for something important." He replied.

_'Okay, that's enough, Arc! No more stuttering!'_

"And you didn't want anyone to know what you were searching for?" she questioned.

'_Well, yeah, I wanted to avoid the awkward question-oh, wait.'_

Pyrrha sighed. "Jaune, we're partners. And I like to think that we're friends. You should ask me for help if you need it."

'_There's that word again. Friends.'_

Jaune nodded. "Sure. I'm sorry if I came across as jerk back there."

Pyrrha smiled at him. "It's okay. So what are we really looking for?"

'_We?'_

"The library has yearbooks, right?" he asked her.

"Probably." She kind of confirmed? "Why? Are you looking for someone?"

"4 someone's actually." He answered.

"Why?"

Jaune didn't quite know how much to tell her.

"I need to ask them some questions."

Pyrrha looked at him and shrugged. "Well, okay. Let's go the library."

Jaune sighed in relief.

"But Jaune." Pyrrha continued.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You're going to give me the full story someday, right?" she finished.

Jaune felt something in the pit of his stomach…It felt like guilt. He did not like guilt.

"I…I can try."

Pyrrha sighed and nodded. "Something tells me that's the most I'm going to get out of you right now."

"Sorry." and he actually, really felt sorry.

"Let's just go."

They walked to the library in awkward silence.

* * *

AN: Sorry if this felt like a filler chapter; I hadn't foreseen the amount of filler chapters I'd have to write. I think Jaune's gonna spend around 3 chapters looking for info and snarking or whatever else the plot demands and 1-2 chapters confronting his prey.

Anyways, time address reviews:

**gunzerker343:** The wiki said they were M1911 with extended mags so that's what I went with.

**D.C Draco: **Negima's actually where I got the inspiration for the nurse that terrifies Jaune this chapter.

As for everyone else: Good guesses all around, but the one that came closest was "Dream Eater" or "Baku" as they're called.


	8. Chapter 7

**AN**: I know these usually go at the end, but quick reminder:

When Jaune uses the word "hunter" and it appears in italics, he's referring to his type of _hunter_; people that know about mystical creatures and hunt them down, not hunters as in Grimm slaying, crazy weapon combinations using super warriors.

**Chapter 7: And it all comes together**

The librarian regarded them warily as they entered the library.

"Excuse me, miss, where can I find the yearbooks?" Jaune asked politely.

"Third shelf to your left." She answered curtly.

"Thank you."

Jaune and Pyrrha walked towards the shelf.

"So, what year?" Pyrrha asked.

"If I remember correctly, they are 2nd year students right now." Jaune replied. "Look for a redhead, a brown haired dude, a blonde chick and a black haired guy."

"Don't you know their names?" Pyrrha questioned.

"If I did I wouldn't be here." Jaune replied.

They spent the next hour going through the various yearbooks.

"Hey, is this the redhead?" Pyrrha asked for what seemed like the 200th time today.

He looked at the picture she was pointing at and his eyes widened.

There was a redhead girl, a brown haired boy and 2 other girls that he didn't recognize.

'_Jackpot!'_

"Yeah! These are the team pictures, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." Pyrrha answered.

"So what are their names?"

"Says here that their names are…Shirley and Sakura."

"Thanks, this will definitely be useful!" he cheered. He could definitely run with this.

He looked at Pyrrha and made a decision. "Pyrrha?"

She turned to look at him. "Yeah?"

"Could you look for the other two? I have to go talk these two."

Pyrrha smiled at him. "Sure thing, Jaune. I'll give you a call once I find them."

"Thanks, I owe you! Just look for the team picture that has a blonde girl and a black haired guy!" and he left as quickly as he could.

The sooner he got to them the better. He had almost nothing on whatever it was that was causing these incidents.

* * *

He ran towards the 2nd year dorms, which were conveniently placed near the first year ones.

'_Okay, now what?'_ he wondered.

Fortunately, he managed to spot a student he'd never seen before. He assumed he was a second year student and walked up towards him.

"Excuse me, do you have a minute?" he asked him.

The 2nd year turned to look at him. "Yeah, what do you want?"

"Do you know where I can find Shirley? Or Sakura?"

2nd year blinked. The he glared at him. "Why do you want to know?" he demanded.

'_Oh, for heaven's sake, why is everyone so protective of these two?!'_

"I just want to ask them a few questions." He replied.

"You know what happened to their team mates?" 2nd year asked.

"I've heard rumors."

"Then don't you think you should leave them alone?"

Jaune frowned.

'_This was so much easier when people thought I was an officer.'_

"It's okay, Eric. I would be curious too if I were new here." A voice interrupted them. Jaune turned around and saw one of the 2 girls in the picture he'd seen.

"But Shirley-" the 2nd year tried to explain.

"It's okay. Really." The now identified Shirley interrupted him. Then she turned to look at Jaune.

"Come with me." She told him.

She led him to what he assumed was her room.

'_Ooh, you know, girls don't usually invite us to their rooms in the middle of a case…'_

Her room was…different. Like really different. Each bed had a different colored mattress and there were all kinds of wallpapers adorning the room. There were shelves filled with all kinds of books.

_'Wait, we can decorate our rooms as we want?'_

She sat down on the lower bunk on the left. Her bed, he assumed. It looked pretty. Blue was a nice color on her.

Shirley looked at him. "So what do you want to know?"

Jaune took a breath. "It's about your team mates."

Shirley nodded. "That's what I thought."

She sighed before continuing. "Look, I'm gonna tell you the same thing I've told everyone else: I don't know what happened and I don't know why it didn't happen to Sakura or me."

Jaune fought back a frown. This girl had obviously been questioned many times.

"Okay, but could I ask you a few things?" he tried.

She nodded despondently.

"When did it start?" he asked.

"Around 3 months ago. We'd been sent to the Emerald Forest for a practical exam." She began.

"An exam?" Jaune questioned.

"We had to find and slay 3 different type of Grimm."

'_Holy balls, no. Just no.'_

"Really? Did anything unusual happen there?"

"We all got separated when a Nevermore attacked us." Shirley said in a distant tone of voice.

Jaune's eyes widened. _'Tweety? Damn, what crappy luck.'_

"We all managed to find each other. Even though it took us some time to find Sakura; she was badly hurt and bleeding everywhere. It was awful. I could barely recognize her." And she closed her eyes.

Jaune didn't say anything. He just waited.

Shirley let out a breath and opened her eyes.

"We decided to take her back to the Academy." She continued.

Jaune nodded. That sounded sensible enough.

"But she started to freak out as soon as we reached the infirmary. She refused to go in. The nurse came out and tried to examine her, but Sakura wouldn't let her. Kept insisting that she was fine."

_'Right, you're bleeding out but you're perfectly fine. Idiot.'_

"The nurse gave her something. A vial. Told her to come get one of those vials every night for a week. Said that if she could throw tantrums, she was probably fine. Then she went back inside."

Jaune frowned. "Really? Nurse Ako?"

_'Well, she did seem very experienced, so maybe she could Sherloc-No, wait. "House" scan her like that. Yeah, far more genre appropriate.'_

Shirley flinched at that. "Yeah, her."

Jaune noticed and found that strange. But then again, Ako terrified the crap out of him too.

"So that's when it all started?"

"No. Sakura was feeling tired so Mindy went to get the vial." She answered.

Jaune frowned thoughtfully. _'Mindy, the redhead?'_

She had been the first victim.

"Did she ever ask your other team mate too?"

Shirley didn't answer. She didn't have the time to. The door was slammed open and her last team mate, Sakura, he presumed, walked in.

"Yeah." Sakura answered. "And I'm pretty sure I've figured it out."

The moment the door opened a strange smell wafted in.

Jaune looked at her, surprised. This was not what he'd been expecting. "Oh? What do you mean?" he asked neutrally.

"Well, it can't be a coincidence!" Sakura told him. "I asked both of them to get me the vial and both of them end up like that?"

Jaune thought about it. "Did you ever ask Shirley?"

Shirley shook her head. "No, after she almost died, I couldn't…I had to…"

Sakura glared at him. "She had her own problems to deal with."

Okay, seriously, what was that smell? What exactly were they cooking in the cafeteria today?

"I see. And did Nurse Ako ever ask to see the other two students that are also in a coma?" he was hoping the answer was no.

He was desperately hoping that the girl would shake her head and deny it.

"Yeah, she asked them both to come in for routine checkups." Sakura unknowingly confirmed his fears.

'_No…But she seemed…But she was…It can't…'_

The tension in the room went up and he noticed that he was feeling hot.

"Do you really think she had something to do with it?" he asked hoarsely.

"Like I said, it can't be a coincidence. And I want to confront her." Sakura declared.

'_NO!'_

"NO!" he suddenly yelled.

The 2 looked at him, startled.

"I mean, we need more information, right?" he asked. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

"What is there to discuss?" Sakura demanded. "All the evidence is right there! I'm not going to let the person that hurt my friends go!"

The smell was making it difficult for him to concentrate.

'_Okay, Arc, calm down. Think this logically. This is just like any other case._ _According to Ako, she's been here for years. The incidents didn't start years ago. Why would she do something like that now?'_

"But why would she do that now? I mean, she's been here for years now, right?" he tried.

"How would I know what a psycho thinks about?" Sakura asked.

"But there's no motive!" Jaune exclaimed. "There is always a motive!"

Sakura glared at him. "Get out. I don't care what you think."

"But-" he tried to interject.

"Get out!" Sakura demanded.

Jaune left the room.

He sighed as the door closed behind him. This case sucked more and more every passing moment.

'_Still, it couldn't have been Ako, right? It doesn't add up…'_

His scroll suddenly bleeped, making him jump.

'_Gah!'_

He glared at the not ipad and opened the notifications menu.

'_Message from Pyrrha.'_

He opened it, hoping for the best.

'_Found them. Their names are Eric and Mary. Good luck!'_

He smiled. _'Oh, I so owe you one for this, Pyrrha! And wait, Eric? As in the guy from before that wanted to kill me for asking questions?'_

He sighed_. 'Well, at least that explains why he was so pissed.'_

"Umm, hey?" a voice spoke from behind him.

He turned around and saw Shirley.

"Oh, hey. Look, I'm sorry for asking all those questions before I just-" he tried to say.

"It's okay. I also wanted to apologize." She cut him off.

"What? Why? You haven't wronged me in any way." Said a confused Jaune.

"Not me, but the way Sakura yelled at you was rude." Shirley replied quietly.

"Oh, that. Hey, it's cool. I understand, really, I do. If something happened to my friends I'd be breathing fire too."

She smiled slightly. "She wasn't always like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Before Emerald Forest, she was kind of shy and meek."

'_Yeah, right. Girl like her, meek? Yeah, sure and Grimm are just misunderstood.'_

"Now she's so outgoing and isn't afraid of breaking the rules anymore. It's like she's a completely different person…"

"Rule breaking? What do you mean?" Jaune asked.

"She usually leaves really early and then comes back really late. She used to be such a stickler for rules too. It's as if this made her stronger…I wish I could be like that…"

'_Aww crap, she looks like as if she's going to cry! What do I do?'_

"Hey, don't beat yourself up. Not everyone can get over what happened to you so quickly, you know?"

She sniffled. "Yeah, I know, I just…I just wish I…"

"Okay, stop. I don't know what exactly you're going through or what you're feeling but beating yourself up about isn't gonna change anything. Besides, this isn't what your friends would want you to do, right?"

'_Oh, please let her stop crying!'_

"You're right. I'm sorry. Anyways, I just wanted to apologize." She told him.

He decided to distract her. He didn't wanna play psychiatrist right now,

He nodded. "Hey, those beds in your room."

She looked at him curiously. "Yes, what about them?"

"Did all you have a color scheme or something?"

This question served a dual purpose: one, it let his distract her with meaningless pleasantries. Two, it was something he was curious about;

was it just him or did everyone have a color scheme in this place?

Shirley nodded. "Yeah. I was blue, Sakura was pink. The other 2…they were red and black."

He nodded. "Thanks."

'_Theory confirmed! But no time to gloat, Arc. We still have a job to do.' _

"Oh, and do you know where I can find Eric?" he asked her.

"Eric? Sure, follow me. But please try not to anger him." She said.

'_Yeah, no promises there.'_

"2 of his team mates are in the infirmary and his partner left a week ago." She said as she led him to Eric's room. She stopped in front a door and knocked, causing the door to open.

"Huh?" Shirley seemed confused when the door opened.

Jaune, on the other hand, was fully alert now. There was something wrong here. He could feel it. His instincts were screaming at him to pay attention.

"Shirley, I need you to stay back." He told her calmly.

"What? Why?" Shirley asked.

He didn't answer. Instead, he walked into the room and reached for 'Ole Trusty.

"Eric?" he called out. "You here?"

No answer.

There was someone lying on the bed though.

'_Normal beds this time, standard academy issue.' _He had no idea why his mind had chosen to focus on this. It's not as if the room was devoid

of decorations; there were quite a few posters hanging in the walls.

He approached the bed slowly. "Eric?" he called out one more time.

Then he reached for the blanket, threw it off and pointed his gun at the figure in the bed.

He lowered it a second later when he realized It was Eric.

Oh my god, Eric!" Shirley screamed.

Jaune turned around and saw Shirley running towards the other student. He seemed fin-no. He began to observe the boy. His lips were blue and he was barely breathing.

He wasn't waking up.

'_Damn it, I was too late!'_

* * *

In spite of her protests, he had carried the 2nd year student towards the infirmary for 2 reasons. One, he wanted to check up on Ako. Two, all other patients in the infirmary were recovering. The 2nd reason was the only reason Shirley had agreed to take the comatose 2nd year to the infirmary.

Ako had seemed fine, if a bit shocked when she saw the comatose student.

Jaune had studied her carefully during this visit and he wasn't sure what to make of the mess he'd found himself in.

He had barely been able to sleep that night. It wasn't the first time he'd seen someone pay the price when he'd been too late, but that didn't mean it didn't bother him.

* * *

Morning came and he found himself on the cafeteria.

He tried to force yesterday's memories away. No need to make everyone else feel bad because he felt like crap, right?

"Ooh, pancakes, pancakes!" Nora was chirping happily. Jaune approved. Pancakes were delicious. So were waffles and French toast, of course. He took some pancakes and bacon to start off his day.

_ 'Ooh, bacon, you greasy, delicious food of the gods…'_

Then he remembered Schnee killing Pumba yesterday and put the bacon back. Pancakes would have to do.

He sat down next to Pyrrha. The rest of his team was there. So was Team RWBY for that matter.

"I see you chose pancakes too, pancake buddy!" Nora was suddenly right next to him.

'_Gah! Personal space, personal space!'_

"Well, yeah, who doesn't love pancakes?" he asked with forced cheer.

"I know, right?! Oh, I knew you had good taste!" Nora seemed happy.

"Nora, you're bothering him. Sit down and eat." Ren told his energetic partner.

"But he seems fine with it! Look, look!" and she started to poke his cheek.

Ren sighed. "I'm sorry, I tried."

'_Not particularly hard! Get back here and take your partner/not quite lover/friend away from me!'_

He was struck by sudden inspiration. "Nora, your pancakes are gonna get cold."

Nora gasped. "You're right!"

And then, she suddenly disappeared and appeared right in front of her meal.

'_Was that Instant Transmission?'_

"So, I guess we haven't really introduced ourselves, huh?" Yang suddenly turned to look at him.

Jaune smiled at her. "I guess not. My name' Jaune Arc. I'm sure it's a pleasure."

Yang actually smirked at that. "And I'm Yang Xiao Long, and the pleasure is all yours, Vomit Boy."

Jaune's eye twitched. "I'm never gonna live that down, huh?"

Yang's smirk widened somehow. "Not with me around!"

Jaune snorted. "Now, don't give me any incentive!" he said with mock seriousness.

Yang chuckled. "What If I want to give you incentive?" she asked playfully, but with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Jaune smirked and leaned in, until his lips were almost touching her ears. "Come up with something better than Vomit Boy." He whispered.

The he leaned back.

Yang was now looking at him with amusement. She looked like the kind of girl that enjoyed making others make fools out of themselves. He could tell that she had accepted his challenge.

'_Joke's on her, we don't need anyone to make fools out of ourselves!'_

He decided to ignore his brain for now. Anyways, he was just hoping that she wouldn't take their little game too far.

It was time to change the subject, lest he incur the wrath of a fun loving blondie.

He turned to Pyrrha. "Hey, you ever notice how everyone here one seems to have a color?"

Pyrrha looked at his curiously. "What do you mean?"

"Well, like Ruby over there's red, Weiss is white and so on." He replied.

The others seemed interested by this topic of conversation.

"Well, Red's a good color for me!" Ruby replied.

"And I like white!" Weiss replied.

Jaune looked at them quizzically. "And I'm willing to bet that all the clothing you own has your color on it."

It kinda worried him that _everyone_ in the table stopped to think about it.

"Well, I have this shirt that…No wait…"

"Not all of my clothing has maroon on it, right?"

"Wait! I have a red and green dress!" Yang suddenly declared.

"…Doesn't that give you yellow if you mix them?" Ren asked her.

"I-uh…It does? Hehehe…" Yang sat down.

"Well, it's not a bad thing, is it?" Blake suddenly asked.

Jaune's eyes widened. That had been Blake. Blake had…Blake had just used more than 3 words at once!

They were all looking at her now.

"Every color is supposed to represent something, right?" Blake seemed nervous under all the attention. _'Did her ribbon just twitch?'_

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked her.

"As an example, red means energy and passion in some cultures." Blake answered. She was blushing now. Probably not used to getting this much attention.

"Really? Did you hear that, Weiss? I'm passionate and energetic!" Ruby cheered.

"Ooh, ooh, what does yellow represent?"

"Forget about that, tell me about white!"

"What about maroon?"

"Orange?"

Blake seemed overwhelmed. Seeing as this was technically his fault and that he owed her one for saving his ass back in the forest, he decided to help her out.

"It goes deeper than that. In some cultures, different colors are even associated to different stages in life." Jaune spoke out loud. The peanut gallery turned to him and Blake slumped in relief. She shot him a grateful nod.

They were all looking at him. He felt special.

He began to rack his head for memories.

"If I remember correctly…" Jaune began. He thought back to the various chapters on his journal. "In some cultures, colors even played key roles in people's beliefs."

Right, he remembered now.

"Like the Gullahs for example, they believed that…" he stopped for a moment here.

Green? Red? No, it was blue!

"…They believed that the color blue gave powerful protection against spirits and-"

He stopped. Not because he couldn't remember, but because he was hit with sudden inspiration.

Blue. Protection.

The prank.

The door.

The infirmary.

The beds.

All blue.

Blue.

He jolted up. "Sorry, guys, I just remembered something, gotta go!" and he ran out the cafeteria.

"Jaune!?"

"Where are you going? Come back, pancake buddy!"

"What? Hey, get back here!"

"And here I was beginning to think that you weren't as stupid as you look!"

He ignored the various indignant cries behind him. He knew what he was hunting now.

* * *

AN: Argh, I get the feeling that the OC's got way too much screen time! Sigh, good thing this case is coming to a close and they won't be playing important roles after that. Also, damn it, I was originally planning to keep every chapter at around 2500 words but I couldn't stop! I couldn't stop…

And things finally come together! I know it was kind of contrived, but here it is! Tell me what needed work and what was fine. I'm here for the criticism, after all!

So, any guesses as to what Jaune's hunting?

Fun fact: The names of some of those OC's come from me googling "useless characters" and using their names.

And now, to address reviews:

**Necrofantasia:** What you have to remember is that in Supernatural (the show I got this idea from), hunters are relatively normal people. Also, it's not that he's bad at combat; it's just that he's unused to fighting Grimm, much less giant scorpions. His knowledge of Grimm is superficial (like most civilians in remnant, I'm guessing) and he IS good at lying. It's just that a lot of people in Beacon are good at spotting BS. Seeing as he was a relatively normal person until now, the crazy weapons that hunters in the RWBY verse use surprise him. Also, to him, and most other _hunters, _who haven't attended combat schools, Aura seems illogical and almost supernatural so most would avoid it even if they heard of it.

**gunzerker343: **Ha, no kidding! But hey, it's cool so who cares, right?


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Skin**

Jaune groaned as he struggled to get up. His back ached and he was sure that he would have cracked a couple of ribs if he hadn't had his Aura.

'_Man this thing packs a punch.'_

He got up and saw the monstrosity that had thrown him against the wall. It was glaring at him.

'_I've lost 'Ole Trusty,'_ he began to assess his current situation_. 'This thing is far stronger and faster than any normal human being has any right to be.'_

The monstrosity began to hiss at him and bared its claws. Sharp things, those claws. He could personally attest to it now.

'_And it really wants me dead.'_

Oh, and he was bleeding from various cuts on his legs and his back hurt like a bitch. His eyesight was obscure due to the blood falling from a cut over his left eye and he was pretty sure his ribs were bruised.

He sighed inwardly_. 'And it's still not even close to being the worst situation I've ever found myself in.'_

Which was a really, really sad thought. He really needed to reassess his life. Or a bottle of alcohol. One or the other.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out his Taurus. He made sure the safety was off and took a deep breath.

"C'mon, then, pretty! Let's dance!" he snarled at it.

* * *

**8 hours ago…**

Jaune ran towards his locker.

'_The problem with dealing with the supernatural,'_ he thought to himself_. 'Is that you never quite know what you'll need until you find out what you're hunting.'_

He opened the locker.

He smiled grimly. _'Good thing I know what I'm dealing with.'_

10 minutes later, he closed the locker and ran towards infirmary. Shirley was probably still there, looking after Eric. He reached the familiar blue door and knocked.

Ako came out. She blinked when she saw him and then smiled at him. That same warm, innocent and incredibly scary smile that made him shiver.

"Oh, my. Didn't I tell you not to come unless you were really sick?" she asked him nicely.

'_Lady, I __**am**__ sick. But the kind of help I need, you can't give.'_ And he was. Only crazy people would chase after things that wanted to eat them. Ah, well. He didn't choose the _hunter_ life; the _hunter_ life chose him and all of that, yeah?

"I just need to talk to Shirley." He replied.

She blinked. "Oh. Well, c'mon in then."

Jaune walked in and saw Shirley sitting on a chair next to Eric's bed. She seemed surprised to see him.

"Shirley." He greeted.

"Jaune." She replied.

"Can I ask a few more questions?" he asked her.

"Umm…Okay, I guess." Shirley seemed subdued. Not surprising, considering she had lost all her friends.

Yes, all of them. Even though she probably didn't know that just yet.

"You told me that Sakura used to be meek and shy, right?" he asked.

This was important. People didn't suddenly undergo massive personality changes with no reason. And from what he'd seen, Sakura was the furthest thing from shy and meek right now.

"Yeah. Why?" she asked back.

He should have felt satisfied. This was a point to his theory, after all. But he couldn't. He knew he wasn't going to enjoy

"Did she ever show signs of being as outgoing and confident as she is now before the test?" he ignored her question.

"I…I don't think so," She replied thoughtfully. "She was always so shy and quiet."

"I see. You told me that she leaves early and comes back late, right?" Jaune nodded thoughtfully.

"Uh, yeah. Why are you asking all of this?" Shirley confirmed.

"Do you know where she goes?" he continued asking, ignoring her question entirely.

"No," she answered. The she glared at him.

Pity. That would've made his job easier.

"Why are you asking all of this?" She demanded.

Jaune paused and gave her an appraising look. He considered his options.

Then he went back to asking questions. "I'll tell you later. Do you know where she might be going?"

Shirley glared at him. "No! I want answers now! You know something, don't you? What is it?"

Jaune considered his options. Again. He couldn't do anything too rash. Ako was there, looking at them with interest. And he was sure she had the freaking syringe with her somewhere.

Should he try…telling the truth? It usually failed, but he might be able to achieve something her. There was a trained medical professional and enough circumstantial evidence for him to hopefully convince them to give him a chance if he worded things perfectly.

"Look, I know what's causing the students to go nightey night." Jaune told her seriously.

Shirley gasped and he could tell Ako was looking at him with renewed interest and a little bit of suspicion.

"And I can stop it, but only if you help me." He finished. This was his Hail Mary. If she didn't help him he'd have to resort to plan B. He did not like plan B.

"So what did a student find that trained medical personnel couldn't?" Ako suddenly demanded.

Jaune ignored her. He liked her, yes, but he really didn't need the Inquisition right now. Not now. Maybe in a couple of minutes.

'_Nobody expects the Inquisition!'_

"So I'll ask again: Do you know where she might be?" Jaune asked her slowly, deliberately.

Shirley was looking at him with suspicion and anger.

Damn. Telling the truth may have backfired. He might have to cut his losses here and leave before he said anything too important.

"And you think Sakura has something to do with it?" she demanded.

No, he KNEW she had something to do with. Everything to do with it, in fact.

He turned to face Ako. "You examined Sakura, right? When they came back from the forest? How was she?" he asked her.

There was still a chance of this working, if he managed to get the trained medical professional on his side. He just hoped lady luck would smile on him for once in his life.

"She was bleeding badly. There was blood everywhere."Ako replied carefully.

"But she was fine, wasn't she? Moving about, no cuts, no wounds, no nothing. Nothing that would cause that much bleeding, at any rate." He continued.

Ako had a thoughtful look on her face. "I…Don't think so…" she finally told him.

"Didn't you find that strange?" Jaune asked her. Could he still do it? Could he convince them?

Ako frowned. "Yes, but I assumed her Aura was working overtime to keep her alive."

Jaune nodded thoughtfully. He knew Aura could accelerate your healing but he hadn't realized just how helpful it could be. This was both good and bad. Bad because it might be used to explain a situation that he _didn't_ want explained and good because this was so freaking awesome. No more nights spent drinking down pain killer cocktails. This was a huge plus in his book.

"But did you see the amount of blood loss on her?" Jaune kept asking. He felt like he was grasping at straws now.

'_Yeah, turn the Inquisition on itself!'_

Ako frowned. "Yes, but-"

"She'd lost far more than one person can, right? And don't give me that Aura crap." He interrupted her. He had to regain the momentum.

"Well, yes, but she was still standing, walking, and yelling. She seemed completely fine. Although I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself…" Ako answered, confused.

Jaune kept looking at her, hoping she'd put the dots together herself.

"And when I cleaned some of that blood away, there were no wounds…But it was her blood. I had it tested…" Ako was mumbling to herself now.

Wait what? Was that kind of thing normal here? Ah, well, no time to worry about that right now.

Jaune decided to try a random stab in the dark.

"And was she the kind of person that had enough Aura to heal that quickly? That much?" he asked her.

It was a good thing he had investigated about Aura once he realized he could use it himself. Although his knowledge was still mostly superficial. He really would have to crack open the books after this.

"No, her Aura reserves were slightly below average." Shirley was the one to answer. She seemed pensive now. Ako turned to face her, surprised.

"Which is why you guys gave her Aura transfusions, right?" Ako asked her.

Ah, yes. From what he remembered of the school curriculum, he understood that they would be taught basic first aid later on. But wait, Aura transfusions? Really?

He began to think of all the possibilities. He would have giggled madly if he weren't too busy trying to look completely sane.

"No." Shirley replied while shaking her head. "We were just relieved to find her walking about that we didn't even ask her if she needed them."

"That's…that's impossible. With the amount of blood loss and lack of large Aura reserves that would have meant…That would have meant…" Ako muttered.

Shirley was now glaring at the nurse.

Jaune hated what he had to do now. Hated the defiant, angry and confused look on Shirley's face as Ako tried to explain this. But it was necessary.

"It would have meant death, right?" He interjected.

"What?" Shirley was glaring at them both now.

Ako nodded slowly, hesitantly. Then she looked directly at him. "What are you getting at?"

"Tell me, what do you two know about Boo Hags?" he asked them.

* * *

**6 hours ago…**

Jaune ran towards where he was hoping his next class was. He'd already missed one and he didn't think skipping out on the 3rd day of class would go unnoticed. The last thing he wanted was to be asked a bunch of questions that he couldn't answer.

He spotted Pyrrha and sighed in relief.

"Where were you?" Pyrrha demanded when he approached her.

That surprised Jaune. Pyrrha had struck him as a relaxed, easy going kind of person. Had he done something to anger his partner lately? Besides abandoning them all in the morning, not telling them where he was going, and skipping a few classes?

Oh, right. That would explain it.

He gave Professor McGonaga-err…Goodwitch a note from the infirmary.

Then he turned to looked at his partner. "In the infirmary. I had to get a routine checkup." He answered.

He felt like a jackass when Pyrrha began to look at him with genuine concern.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, just a checkup." He gave her a smile.

"Mr. Arc, you may have an excuse, but you're still late. Please refrain from disturbing the class." McGona-err…Goodwitch scolded him.

Jaune smiled sheepishly. "Ah, my apologies, professor! It won't happen again."

'_Smooth, jackass, smooth.'_

"See that it doesn't," was the answer he received. "Anyways, as I was saying, I will now divide you all into pairs."

Excited and nervous murmurs. What was this about?

"These pairs will be chosen at random," she continued. "Every pair will step up into the arena," and she motioned at the arena behind her. "Where you will duel your partner. This will allow me to gauge your skills."

'_WHAT.'_

He was going to die here then. Why, oh, why, had he chosen to sneak in as a student? In all honesty, it would have been far easier to sneak in as a janitor.

He wouldn't have had to fake transcripts too.

'_For dust's sake, what the hell what I thinking?!'_

Then again, Beacon was fully staffed and positions here were highly sought after. Even the janitorial ones, so who knows if he would have been able to.

"Jaune, are you okay?"

He turned around and saw his partner looking at him with concern.

"Yeah, what's up, pancake buddy?" Nora chimed in. "You look worried. Ooh, are you worried about your match? If you're paired up with me I'll go easy on you!"

Yeah, that made him feel better.

He looked at his watch.

Damn it, he did not need a fight with a super soldier! Not today, not right now! He needed to be in tip top condition for tonight!

He began to look around for something, anything that might delay the duels. McGonag-Goodwitch was now dividing everyone into pairs.

Although he supposed he could also just forfeit the moment his duel started. What did he care about grades? He was going to leave soon anyways.

With that thought, he managed to relax somewhat.

Then he began to imagine his partner's disappointed face and his team mates' and friends' faces if he did that and frowned.

On the one hand, he was looking into a fight with a super soldier. On the other hand, he really didn't wanna disappoint his friends. He sighed.

"Mr. Arc." McGon-Goodwitch called him.

"Yes?" he was inwardly cursing. Was it his turn?

"You were in the infirmary until now, correct?" she asked him.

"Yes, professor." He confirmed.

"Are you able to fight today?"

There was a god. There was a god and Jaune was going to find a nice goat and sacrifice it in his name.

"I'm afraid not, professor. The nurse advised to me take things easy today." He was now hoping she'd buy that. He really, really needed her to buy that.

"I see. Then you will participate tomorrow. Your partner will be Cardin Winchester." She informed him.

_YES! YES! YES! The sky is blue again, the grass is green, and the world is beautiful once more!'_

"I understand, professor." He said meekly.

McGona-Goodw-Ah, screw it, McGonagall nodded at left.

He felt like dancing and would've done so if were alone.

"Well, good luck, guys!" he told his friends.

"You told me it was just a routine checkup!" Pyrrha seemed indignant.

"It was. I was just told to take in easy today." He replied. It

"Oh, is that why you were nervous?" Nora asked him.

"What happened?" Ren seemed curious.

"Look, it was just a checkup and I was told to take it easy for today, okay? Now stop worrying about me, get out there and kick some ass!" he told all of them.

"Sure thing, boss!"

At least Nora seemed excited.

Ren and Pyrrha nodded.

Jaune sat back. It would be interesting to watch the fights now that the threat of immediate death by overpowered student wasn't looming over his head.

* * *

**4 Hours ago…**

The dueling session had been an eye opener for Jaune. It had showed him 2 things:

One, not everyone had the insane skill level that his friends did. This was kind of reassuring. He had seen a lot of rookie mistakes being made and a lot of fights that could have ended differently if things had played out differently. This meant he wasn't as bad compared to his classmates as he had originally believed.

Two, his friends were monsters. In a land of predators, his friends were lions. They stood heads and shoulders above most of their peers. As if he didn't feel emasculated enough by their weapons already.

Jerks.

"That was fun!" Nora cheered as they entered the cafeteria.

'_Meth on crack ain't got nothing on Nora.'_

Ren just nodded with incredible patience.

Jaune snickered. _'Man, this guy's either incredibly whipped or a saint.'_

They sat down at their table and Team RWBY joined them shortly afterwards.

"Man, that match was fun!" Yang and Nora were going to get along swimmingly. Jaune was willing to bet his apple pie on it.

Blake just ignored her partner and buried her face in a book.

Ren and Blake were also going to get along well. Nothing drew people closer than shared suffering!

"I think I went a bit overboard…" said a sheepish looking Ruby.

"Nonsense! You kicked his ass and that's the end of that!" Yang clapped her "sister" on the shoulder. "Oh, I'm so proud of my little sis', kicking ass and taking names already!"

Jaune chuckled and then looked down at his watch.

He still had some time before the hunt. He looked around and saw his team mates and team RWBY conversing and laughing together.

He frowned.

'_I…Damn, I'm actually going to miss them.'_

"Jaune? You look kind of sad. Is there something wrong?"

Jaune looked up and saw Ruby looking at him concern.

He gave her a slightly forced smile. "Nah, just thinking about a few things."

"You? Thinking? About what?" Weiss asked him.

"Me, yes, about a lot of stuff." He answered with a genuine smile.

Yang chucked at Weiss's almost imperceptible eye twitch.

Nothing better than snark to improve your mood.

Weiss humphed and turned back to her meal.

Ruby seemed a bit unconvinced but she nodded and smiled at him. "Well, if you ever need help, we're here to help you out, okay?"

Jaune would've snorted if it were anyone else. He smiled at her instead. A genuine smile this time. "Thanks, but I'm fine, really."

It occurred to him that he still hadn't taken Ruby to see his arms dealer. Great, more guilt. As if he wasn't feeling like crap already.

He got up. "I'm sorry but I have to go ask McGona-err…Goodwitch some questions about my duel tomorrow. See you guys later!"

He left the cafeteria.

The sudden silence was broken when Blake looked up curiously.

"…Did he call Professor Goodwitch "McGonagall"?"

* * *

**3 hours ago…**

Jaune was in the library, which he had begun to develop a fondness for, and opened his rucksack to make everything he needed was in it.

It was.

He pulled out his journal and read the entry he had marked for what seemed like the 100th time today.

He got up and stretched. Then he looked down at his watch.

It was almost time. In one hour he would go and track down a monstrosity that could very easily overpower most people. In one hour he was going to fight the thing and hopefully make sure it could never hurt people again.

In one hour he was going to face a monster that had so many different myths that he wasn't even sure what would work and what wouldn't.

But more importantly, he was going to go toe to toe with something that he was sure could not be killed by conventional means.

'_Man, why are all my cases so weird?'_

* * *

**AN: **Man, this took some time to make. I blame exam week for that. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it. And now to address individual reviews:

**Necrofantasia: **Most people can't deal with the supernatural not because they're incredibly powerful (although some are; remember that some creatures were worshipped as gods), but because they don't know about the supernatural. They simply don't have the knowledge. It doesn't matter how good you are if you're caught off guard or have no idea what to do. Every monster has a weakness, and Aura enhanced punches or bullets aren't usually it.

**Blitzxs:** Glad I could entertain you.

**AndreiN00B:** I think chapters are gonna end up being longer now. Also, Crocea Mors will be making an appearance really soon.

**Noob6:** Yeah, some characters really get a lot of hate.

**Totez amaze baws:** We have a winner!


	10. Chapter 9

**Quick AN: 'The x hours before...'** refer to the beginning of the previous chapter.

**Chapter 9: Skin: Conclusion**

**2 hours before…**

Jaune was flipping through his journal when the not Ipad he had recently acquired beeped at him.

He closed the journal and put it back in his ruck sack and unlocked the not Ipad.

'_One message.'_ He opened the message and smiled mirthlessly as he read the contents. He then slung the rack sack over his back and left the library.

It was time.

He crept out silently, hoping not to wake the slumbering librarian and began to walk towards the 2nd year dorms. It didn't take him long to reach the door to Shirley's room. He sniffed the air.

'_Rot and decay. Hah, I really should've noticed.'_

He had first noticed it the first time_ it_ had entered the room. _It_ wasn't stupid though. The smell had been covered up with other scents, but the truth was that anyone familiar with the scent of rot and decay should have been able to detect the traces of it in the perfume the thing had chosen to wear to cover up _its_ natural scent.

It sucked to admit, but he had really screwed the pooch on that one. In his defense, the smell had been god awful and no one in their right mind would have been able just breathe it in and analyze the scents.

'_But enough of that, we all make mistakes and we can all drink ourselves to a drunken stupor when we're not in the middle of a hunt.'_

It was hard to see in the dark, but he was a fairly capable tracker and skillfully made his across the halls, following both the scent and the faint footsteps on the floor.

He soon made his way into the courtyard. He smiled. The moonlight increased his visibility. He saw a figure moving in front of him and immediately rolled in to the statue of his ancestor and hid behind it.

He strained his ears and heard the figure shuffling forward and he snuck a look at_ it_.

It was definitely his quarry.

Jaune had an inkling as to what was going to happen, but the truth was, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

The figure, which so resembled Sakura, reached for its face and began to _pull_.

And slowly, the face began to _come off_.

Jaune couldn't look away. Not even as the _monster _managed to pull away the skin of the face completely and he could see one empty eyehole staring into the night sky.

As if it were a suit, the monster began to peel away at the skin on its torso.

Jaune looked away.

He waited for what seemed to be an eternity until the thing finally grunted and the sound of something hitting ground was heard.

He sneaked a peek again.

'_Man, if people start joking about me being a voyeur again, I swear to god I'm going to…'_

Jaune stopped and stared. The…thing. The thing standing over shed skin was hideous. It was skinny. It was horribly skinny, almost emaciated. He could see bones sticking out and its…skin was sunken, gray, wrinkled and yet waxy. Like molten wax. And even away from it as he was, even though it wasn't looking at him, he could see the red glow of its eyes.

The pungent scent of rotting meat hit his nostrils and he recoiled.

'_Good heavens, the thing looks almost as bad as it smells.'_

The Boo Hag raised the skin and placed in the carefully in some bushes. Then the figure turned around and began to move back, towards the academy, but more importantly, where he was hidden.

He saw it approaching him, with a slow, measured gait.

Unfortunately for him, he got a much better look at its face. Its eyes were sunken but they were also huge, bigger than any normal human's eyes, and its long nose was crooked.

His mind, stunned by its appearance, immediately jumped into a conclusion.

'_Damn, she fugly.'_

Jaune crept to the other side of the statue and waited for it to pass. It did, without looking back.

He was reminded of Scooby Doo for some reason.

Jaune was now looking at the hag walking back towards the academy. Seeing her from the back did not improve her appearance.

He waited until he was sure it(she?) would not be able to see him and he walked towards the bushes, where the hag had left her skin.

He left the not Ipad right next to it and clicked send on the message that he had prepared beforehand.

He just hoped they would do their part while he did his.

Then he ran after the hag.

* * *

**8 hours ago…**

"A boo hag?" Shirley asked. Ako seemed similarly confused.

Jaune nodded. "A boo hag."

"I can't say I've ever heard of that." Ako told him.

He wasn't surprised.

"A boo hag is a...well, a boo hag is a monster." Jaune began to explain.

"A monster?" Shirley questioned.

"What are you getting at, Arc?" Ako demanded.

"A boo hag is a monster that approaches sleeping people and drains their spiritus vitae, or life force." He continued.

Ako gave him a skeptical look. "Are you saying that's what's causing all of this?"

Shirley's eyes widened at that and then she began to glare at him.

Jaune sighed. He hated noobs and explaining to noobs was simply put, annoying.

"A boo hag doesn't usually kill their target. They leave them alive, so that they can keep draining away their life force." He soldiered on.

The 2 were glaring at him now.

"But when they do kill their target, they tend to take their skin so that they can disguise themselves."

"So what, this boo hag thing kills Sakura and takes her skin, is that it?" Shirley demanded.

Jaune sighed again. "Yes, that's exactly it."

Ako rolled her eyes. "Jaune, that's a nice explanation and all, but monsters like that aren't real."

Jaune snorted. "Gods, I wish I could agree with you."

Then he reached into his ruck sack and pulled out his journal.

"But the truth is: we're not alone."

He winced at that. That sounded way too sci-fi ish for him.

Ako snorted.

He turned to look at Shirley. "Tell me if this sounds familiar: the hag is clever; she will take the skin of those who resist it and use it to blend in, thereby gaining access to more people to feed on," he began to read. "A hag's presence can be confirmed by the smell of rotting meat and a sudden increase in temperature."

Shirley stopped and stared. "Well, yes, but monsters…Monsters aren't real."

Jaune narrowed his eyes. "Are you going to tell me that none of you noticed the smell?"

Ako frowned thoughtfully.

"She's been wearing a lot of perfume lately." Shirley replied, desperately trying to defend her friend.

"But it still smells bad, doesn't it?" Jaune asked her. "When you breathe it in, can't you smell something…_wrong_?"

"There was a strong smell when they brought her in, but I wasn't paying attention to that…" Ako began hesitantly.

"No..No…You're wrong." Shirley seemed to telling that to herself more than to them.

"And haven't you noticed that it suddenly becomes hot whenever she comes in? She's not even that hot, so how would explain that?" Jaune questioned.

He had to resist the urge to slap himself in the face. His bad habit of making bad jokes in inappropriate times was going to get him killed one day.

Ako snorted. "Maybe we're both bisexuals with low standards."

Ah, snark. It brightened the mood, it pissed of your enemies and it also served as a coping mechanism. What wasn't there to love about it?

Jaune snorted too. "Well, in that case, I'd like to invite both of you out to dinner."

Shirley glared at them. "How can you joke about something like this?"

Jaune sighed. She just didn't get it. "Sorry, sorry. Anyways, you yourself told me that she doesn't act like herself anymore. That she seems like a different person."

Shirley looked away. "That's true, but…" then she glowered at him. "In that case, why hasn't she attacked me?" she demanded.

"The color blue represents strong protection in Gullah culture. Hags are repelled by it," He read out loud. "Your mattress is blue. It probably repelled her and she went off, searching for easier targets." He concluded.

Ako's eyes widened. "The door here is blue!"

Jaune nodded, satisfied. "Exactly. Which is why they're recovering. The hag can't get to them anymore."

Shirley shook her head. "It's not…"

Jaune frowned at her. "Look, just hear me out, okay? If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But if I'm right, we can stop all of this! We can stop the one that hurt your friends!"

Shirley lowered head and closer her eyes.

Jaune wanted to tear away at his hair in frustration.

Then, she raised her gaze and looked directly into his eyes. "Do you thing this boo hag really did all of this?" she asked in a steely tone.

Jaune met that gaze unflinchingly. "Yes."

Shirley nodded. "Fine. I'll go along with anything you ask this time. But if you're wrong, I'm going to hurt you."

Jaune smiled and nodded. "Fair enough."

* * *

**1 hour ago…**

Jaune crept after the hag. He had a rough idea where it was going to go. She led him into a building that he hadn't gone to yet.

His suspicions were confirmed when they reached the janitorial rooms, the only ones without Scroll security locks. Jaune stopped in the hallway and peeked around the corner, where the rooms were. The hag abruptly stopped when she reached the first door.

The door had been painted blue.

Jaune smirked.

The hag hissed and walked towards the second room and stopped. It was also painted blue. The hag growled and began to look around suspiciously. Jaune just barely managed to duck back.

He heard the shuffling footsteps and another hiss.

Jaune would have burst out laughing if he were alone.

Everything was going according to plan.

* * *

**7 hours ago…**

"So what's the plan?" Ako asked him.

Jaune looked at his journal. "There are ways to repel the hag." He replied.

"Such as?"

Jaune looked at her. "I don't suppose any of you have a broom? I mean one of those old fashioned brooms that you see in Harry Potter movies."

Ako and Shirley looked at him incredulously.

"What? It's one of the simplest and yet most effective ways of stopping her!" Jaune protested.

Shirley was still staring at him but Ako frowned and shook her head. "Beacon only uses electronic brooms."

Jaune frowned. "What? Why? Why would you stop using brooms?" he demanded.

"Part of a new program set by-" Ako began.

"Okay, stop. I don't care about that. All I have to know is that the staff here hates good 'ole fashioned brooms." Jaune declared indignantly.

"So no brooms at all?" he asked.

Ako shook her head.

Jaune frowned. "Damn."

"Are there any other ways?" Shirley asked him.

Jaune nodded. "Yes. Like I said, the color blue repels them."

Ako's frown widened. "Right, so what, we paint every door blue? There are hundreds of doors here!"

'_Well, a bunch of students did it.'_

Jaune began to think about the hag's previous victims. "Not exactly…"

"What do you mean?" Ako demanded.

"Most of the doors here require a scroll, right?" he questioned.

They both nodded and their eyes widened in recognition.

"Has…_she_ recently acquired scrolls that don't belong to any of you?" he asked Shirley.

"No." Shirley shook her head. "Not that I know."

"Well, that just leaves the doors that don't require Scrolls." Jaune concluded.

"There are a couple. The janitorial ones, the storage ones, a few offices and the chef rooms and some others." Ako told him.

"Well, I'm gonna guess that people don't sleep in storage rooms and the offices should be mostly safe." Jaune guessed.

"Right. So we go paint doors?" Ako asked him.

"Not…exactly." Jaune denied. "That will just stop her tonight. We need to find a way to kill her before she can hurt more people."

Jaune tried to smile encouragingly. "It is a start though."

* * *

**30 minutes ago…**

Jaune knew that Ako would be working on the doors right now. He just hoped she would be able to finish before the hag found her.

The hag finished examining all the doors and hissed in what he guessed was frustration. Then she turned around and began to walk towards the exit. Jaune barely had time to duck to avoid her line of sight and hurriedly walked out of the building.

He hid on some bushes by the entrance.

The hag came out shortly afterwards and began to walk towards the building where the cooks and cafeteria helpers slept in. Jaune followed after her.

Again, most of the doors were blue and the hag growled. She came out and began to move towards the courtyard. Jaune followed after her.

'_Where the heck is Pukeahontas leading me now?_' he wondered.

It wasn't until he saw the statue that he realized that the hag was headed towards her skin. He couldn't allow that. Not yet.

He grimaced but pulled out 'Ole Trusty.

"Hey, pretty!" he called out.

The hag turned around and hissed at him.

"Yeah, yeah, not impressed." He said as he pulled the trigger. The hag was blasted away. She hit a tree and began to shriek in agony.

Jaune smiled grimly. _'Rocksalt bullets. Work like a charm.'_

The hag got up and glared at with hatred burning in those burning red eyes of hers. Jaune was pleased to see burn marks where the bullets had hit her.

"A_ hunter?" _it demanded in a thick, guttural voice.

"You know other type of people that would run after someone as pretty as you?"

It hissed and bared its claws at him.

Jaune cocked the gun back and aimed at it again.

Then the hag leapt at him and Jaune pulled the trigger again, fully expecting to see her fly off again. Except impossibly, somehow, the thing twisted in mid-air and narrowly avoided the bullets.

Jaune's eyes widened and he raised his gun to block her incoming claw.

Jaune grunted when the full force of her overhead slash smashed into his gun.

He gasped sharply when he felt the claws scratch away at his face even though he had managed to avoid being sliced in half for now. He reached for his belt with his free hand and barely managed to pull out his knife and deflect the hag's other clawed hand.

He jumped back to put some distance between them.

The hag was grinning at him, a ghoulish smile that made him shiver. Then he felt the blood trickling down his forehead and into his left eye, obscuring his vision.

He frowned. That could be a problem.

He lowered the knife hand into a more defensive position and aimed at it again with his shot gun.

The things raised her now bloodied claw and charged at him.

Jaune aimed at fired twice this time while running back. The wide spread grazed the hag even though she managed to avoid most them. She screamed but still managed to turn around and leap behind a tree.

Jaune immediately sheathed his knife and began to reload, even while running, trying to maintain distance.

They were at a stale mate. That suited him just fine.

He heard scuttling behind him and fired back, without stopping or turning around. He heard a scream. He jumped behind a particularly large tree and began to reload.

He had just finished reloading when he heard a loud cry and looked up. The hag was falling on him from the top of the tree. Fast. He didn't have enough time to fire so he twisted away but still felt the claw brush against him, cutting his leg.

He thanked Aura for that. That cut would have been far deeper without it.

He fired twice in rapid succession and ran back as fast as he could.

Then the thing appeared from his left_, how the hell had it even moved there so quickly?,_ and slashed his gun away.

'Ole Trusty flew in a wide arc and fell next to an oak tree.

Jaune twisted and managed to narrowly avoid having his face carved up and forced as much Aura as he could into his arms to block the follow up strike. He successfully deflected the blow and twisted out the way and countered with a kick.

He was somewhat satisfied to see that his arms hadn't been cut up at all. That Aura thing really was a gift of the gods.

The hag grunted but he knew that he had merely caused it small discomfort. Hags had very few weaknesses and a kick to the groin wasn't one of them. Which was just unfair, really.

He used the kick as a way to throw himself back and give him some time to regroup. He wiped the blood away from his eye, clearing his vision for now. He knew that the blood would come back, face wounds had a nasty tendency to bleed a lot, but he could use every advantage right now.

The hag was on him right as he wiped the blood away. Jaune immediately moved his arm up to intercept her thrust. He saw the other claw coming at him and used the Aura on his hand to grab her clawed hand and throw it back.

It hurt like a bitch. His hand was cut and bleeding.

He now had a brief window of opportunity. He headbutted the hag and jumped back, widening the distance between them. The hag was now grimacing.

Jaune smirked. The truth was that the hag should and could have torn into him with ease before. But he wasn't as stupid as many of his acquaintances would want to believe. His school jacket, now torn, revealed the blue shirt underneath.

'_Stupid school rules, not letting me wear what I want.'_

Didn't they understand that lives were at stake? That people's lives depended on him wearing whatever he wanted? ...Okay, admittedly, that sounded ridiculous, but still.

He could tell the Hag was realizing that now. Although not as powerful as it would have been on a wall or any other stationary object, the blue shit dampened the hag's incredible, super human strength and speed.

That wasn't to say that she couldn't skewer him if he made a mistake. The shirt just gave him a better fighting chance.

The hag howled before charging at him, far faster than anything she'd done until now. Jaune's eyes widened in surprise. He brought up the knife with both his hand to block the incoming assault.

It hit him like a steam roller and he was sent flying into a tree. He coughed up some blood but pushed himself off the floor. In the last second, he had used his Aura to improve his defenses, reducing the amount of damage done.

Unfortunately, using that much Aura had almost depleted his reserves. This suited him just fine. He had spent most of his life fighting without it anyways.

He looked up and saw the hag closing in, fast. Again. She really wanted to slice him up.

He barely had time to raise his knife to deflect an attack and just barely managed to sidestep the other claw.

In that instant, he saw a small opening.

His knife hand lunged and he stabbed it through the heart. He then kicked it away, but the sound of ripping fabric told him she had managed to hit him somewhere. He looked down at his pants and saw that the hag had managed to cut his legs.

His remaining Aura made sure that most of the cuts were superficial, but some of the cuts were somewhat deep, and would impair movement.

His knife was now stuck in the hag's chest. It did not seem to be doing any damage at all.

He wasn't surprised. That attack, like almost everything he'd been doing so far, had only been meant to give him some time.

He reached into his belt and pulled out 2 bags which he threw at the hag.

The hag sliced them instinctively and salt exploded out the bags. The hag shrieked and began to slash around wildly.

Jaune began to run towards his shotgun. He ran towards the oak tree where he had last seen his gun. He was about to pick it up when the hag jumped after him, grabbed his by the back of his jacket and threw him into a tree.

Jaune groaned as he got up.

The hag was glaring at him. On the plus side, he could see burn mark all around its body and knew that he had managed to hurt it. Badly.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out his Taurus.

"C'mon, pretty! Let's dance!" he snarled at it.

The hag obliged and jumped after him. Jaune began to think of the way the hag had avoided so many of his bullets, the way it twisted even mid-air.

He would have to be careful. He no longer had the wide spread of the shot gun.

He aimed and pulled the trigger three times, as quickly as he could, aiming where he thought the hag might dodge into, hoping that one of them would hit her.

He was hoping this would work. This was a relatively recent addition to his arsenal. Jaune had begun to experiment with hollowing out his bullets with a small drill and pouring salt in them. He wasn't sure how well it would work. Not with the smaller amount of salt compared to his shotgun.

Heck, it was a miracle that those bullets could even be _fired._

The thing flinched in agony when after dodging 2 of his bullets, the third one embedded itself into its arm, right as she was about to bring her arm down in an overhead slash that would have sliced him into two. He had managed to correctly guess her flight pattern.

The thing fell from the air and grasped its arm and shrieked.

Jaune smiled coldly in satisfaction. It had worked. He aimed for center mass and began to fire. Dazed, in agony, and so close to him after its jump, it couldn't dodge.

He began to fire at it, and the hag began to retreat, screaming as she did so.

Jaune fired one last bullet and the hag fell over.

He was panting hard and his vision was blurry. The blood on his face was back. He ignored it and put a new clip in and approached the fallen hag.

"Jaune?" a voice called out.

Jaune cursed when he saw Shirley coming towards him.

"What are you doing here?!" he demanded. Couldn't she see he was a little busy here?

"Are you okay?" she asked him, concerned.

Normally, he would've appreciated the concern. But the truth was that he also hated that question.

His ribs were cracked, his legs were all sliced up, and a lot of his Aura had been depleted, his hand was badly cut. No, he was not _freaking_ okay.

"Stay away!" He yelled. To his dismay, she began to run towards him.

"No!" he tried to warn her. She was too close to the boo hag! Jaune raised his gun but the hag was faster.

In an instant, the hag was up and it sliced into Shirley.

Jaune tried to aim but couldn't fire with Shirley standing so close to the hag. For one small instant, the 2 were and a standstill. Then the hag pushed Shirley towards him and leapt off into the distance.

Jaune fired at the running hag. It wasn't until his clip was empty that he ran towards the bleeding girl.

'_Damn it, damn it, damn it!'_

He reached into his ruck sack for gauze. Fortunately, her Aura had protected her from most of the blow and it was likely that she would survive.

That didn't mean she wasn't bleeding badly from her stomach.

"Oh gods, it hurts…Ah! It hurts!" she was gasping for air.

"You're going to be okay." he began to whisper soothingly as he began to wrap her wounds.

"Oh, gods, I'm so sorry!" she was hysterical now.

"Sorry for what?" he demanded as he continued his bloody work.

"I should've listened! I should've…"

"We'll discuss blame later, for now we have to get you patched up." He reassured her. The truth was the he wasn't even particularly mad. He knew that the hag would die today, one way or the other.

He finished wrapping the gauze around her. "Can you call Ako?"

She was probably still painting doors somewhere.

Shirley was still gasping but managed to reach for her not ipad. "I think so."

"Good. Stay alive and I'll see you later!" he got up and ran towards the location the hag had run off to.

"Good luck!" he heard Shirley call out.

Jaune ran towards the skin. Something told him that's where ugly was headed for. He saw the familiar looking bushes where the hag had hidden her skin and pulled out his gun.

Then he heard a loud shriek.

* * *

**Approximately 7 hours ago…**

"So how do we get rid of it?" Shirley asked him.

"I'm not sure we can." He answered somberly.

"Then what are we supposed to do against it?" Ako demanded.

Jaune handed her the journal and pointed at a paragraph near the bottom.

"Hags are highly vulnerable to sunlight," she began to read. "Which is the reason they need a skin. Finding their skin and making sure they can't get to it seems to kill them most of the time."

"So we need to find her skin?" Shirley asked.

"Yeah," Jaune replied before turning to look at Ako. "Keep reading."

"Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they can't simply take another skin or hide somewhere dark," Ako resumed reading. "Salt and pepper the skin. When the hag puts it back on it will put her in a world of hurt. This is probably the best way to make sure it dies."

"So we pour salt and pepper all over the skin? Will that stop it?" Ako asked him.

"Not exactly. Note that what kills them is the sunlight. The salt and peppered skin just makes sure they're in pain which buys us more time." Jaune replied.

"So what's the plan?" Shirley and Ako were now looking at him.

This was new. He hadn't expected them to help. Looking at their eyes, he could tell that nothing he said would keep them from participating. Better to know what they were gonna do than let them go off on their own.

Jaune began to do something he did really well: he improvised.

"You said she leaves early before," Jaune told the 2nd year student who nodded at his reaffirmation. "Try to keep "her" with you for as long as you can. The more we can delay, the better."

Shirley seemed nervous but she nodded.

"Send me a message once she leaves you and I'll track her down." Jaune continued.

Jaune began to think of what to do next.

"So you're going to find where she hides the skin?" Ako asked him.

Jaune nodded. "That's the plan."

"Let me salt and pepper them." Shirley spoke up.

"What? No, it's too dange-" Jaune began.

"I know it's dangerous. But if what you say it's true, then that thing killed my friend and almost killed my team mates!" Shirley interrupted angrily. "I'm not just going to sit back and watch that thing hurt more people!"

Jaune looked at her directly into the eyes. Then he sighed. Women were terrifying when they really wanted something.

"It could be very helpful, you know?" Jaune looked at Ako incredulously. "This would let you keep an eye over the hag and make sure it doesn't drain anyone else." She finished.

Jaune began to think about it. "Fine. But how do I tell you where it is?" he asked them.

Shirley looked at him. "I can give you one of the Scrolls my team mates used. Every Scroll can track down their team mates' Scrolls."

Interesting. Also slightly creepy.

"Gotcha. I'll leave the Scroll where it hides the skin and tail the thing, make sure it doesn't hurt anything one else," Jaune began to plan out the specific parts of their little plan. "I might also have to fight it, buy more time for the sun to rise."

"I can fight too." Ako volunteered.

"No. I don't know where exactly the hag will hit next. I need you to ward the rooms that the hag might be able to get into." He told her.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" she demanded angrily.

"Well, like we said, you can paint the doors blue," Jaune pointed at the journal. "I'll leave this in your care tonight. It has more information so read up on the page I marked. It's one of my most valuable possessions so please take good care of it."

Ako looked at the journal and nodded thoughtfully. "Fine."

Jaune looked at his accomplices. "So y'all ready?"

They nodded.

* * *

**Present time…**

Jaune watched as the hag, now wearing Sakura's skin, began to scream and claw away at the skin.

It flailed around wildly before setting its gaze on him. "You!" she hissed.

"Me." Jaune replied. The he fired at her.

The hag shrieked incomprehensibly and fell into the ground. She was still shrieking when Jaune approached her still flailing form and fired down at it.

The thing was still screaming incomprehensibly when Jaune began to reload.

Then the hag began to rip off its skin.

Jaune looked down at her, morbidly curious, but not particularly worried. The hag ripped of its skin and struggled to get up. It glared up at him.

He smiled coldly down at it. Then he shot her some more. The hag shrieked again. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if he needed to keep firing at her after all the damage that had been done to it.

This was payback.

_'And it's rather fun...'_ A dark part of his mind whispered. He ignored it.

"I will tear off your skin for this!" she screeched.

Jaune smiled patiently. "I bet you'd love to."

"I will kill all your friends!"

Jaune looked down at his watch. "Neato. Are you going to keep all our skins in your wardrobe?"

The hag managed to get up into its knees and its glare intensified. "I will make you beg for death while I rip off your skin!"

Jaune smiled at it. "Sounds kinky. Should we set up a safe word?"

The hag was visibly still struggling to get up. "You mock me? You will pay for this!" And failing miserably to look threatening.

Jaune's watch began to beep. His smile widened.

"I don't think so," his smile turned vicious. "You see, it just so happens that the birds are singing, the skies are lighting up and the sun is..."

The way the hag's hateful glare suddenly turned fearful made him feel warm inside. He stepped to a side, letting the sun's rays hit the hag.

"..you know, _rising_."

The hag's shrieks began anew as smoke started to come out of it.

"Morning sunshine!" Jaune crowed at it.

The hag flailed around wildly before it began to disintegrate. Its arm fell of and turned into dust before its legs also decided to jump ship.

With one final cry, the hag turned completely into dust.

Jaune looked at the dust that was already being blown into different directions by the wind. Then he took a deep breath and fell into his knees as the adrenaline wore off. He looked up towards, the rising sun and smiled.

'_Case closed, monster dead, another satisfied customer! Cha-ching!'_

He thought to himself before falling over, face first, as his eyes closed and he felt a familiar darkness overtaking him.

* * *

AN: Here's the confrontation. As usual, I suck at action scenes. Ah, well. I just hope I didn't mess up this chapter too much; it's the longest chapter I've written so far. Here's hoping it wasn't too confusing to follow. Anyways, the monster's dead, the case is closed and it is now time for Jaune to move on to other things…maybe. Probably.

The 2 OC's roles will start to die out now. I might use one or the other every now and then but their roles will be far smaller now.

The description I got for the boo hag, for any one that's curious, is simply from searching for boo hag in google. I also got some ideas from the witch in Left 4 Dead.

And now, to address individual reviews!

**AnInterestedThirdParty: **After being told a few times that Jaune is reminiscent of Harry Dresden,I have acquired Storm Front although I haven't gotten too far yet.

**Necrofantasia: **Jaune cannot beat everyone. He can beat some and put up a good fight against others, but he would be hard pressed to beat some of the students even with Aura. The only way he'd be able to defeat some of the stronger students would be if he fought them on his own terms and went all out. Which he would never do because he runs the risk of outright killing them if he does (sniping them from afar, setting up claymores, or other explosive traps and the like) and even then, if someone like Pyrrha knew, she could just use her semblance to repel everything. You're right about him needing to be more confident though. He can definitely put up a good fight if pressed. As for Ozpin wanting him…Well, he has his reasons.

**Blitzxs: **Man, I just hope I didn't mess up too badly. As for Crocea Mors, it will appear in around 1-2 chapters.

**AndreiN00B: **Glad you're enjoying the story so far. Crocea Mors will be appearing really soon so I'll try to explain more about it then.

Well, R&R and thank you for reading thus far.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Aftermath and revelations**

Jaune woke up, feeling sluggish.

'_An unfamiliar ceiling…'_

Then he had the urge to slap himself. He was not turning into Shinji, damn it!

He tried to get up but someone placed their hands on him and gently pushed him back down.

He looked up and saw Ako looking down at him.

"You need to rest. You got cut up pretty badly." She informed him.

Ah. He remembered everything now. He remembered the hunt, the fight but more importantly, he also remembered loaning her his journal.

"Where's my journal?" he demanded. Normally, he would've been more polite. Especially since the person in front of him terrified him and was responsible for making sure he was healthy.

Ako gave him a glare. "Lovely bedside manners, Arc. Just so you know, I decide when you get out of here."

Jaune glared back. He wanted his journal back.

And no, he was not throwing a tantrum. He just really wanted his journal.

"Don't worry, your journal's on my desk. As are your weapons and your rucksack." Ako told him with a sigh.

Jaune nodded and sighed in relief. "Thank you." He told her with a small smile.

Ako snorted. "Kid, I think we should be thanking you…But man, to think boo hags are real…"

Jaune felt bad for pulling two innocent, blissfully ignorant people away from the veil that separated the normal from the unnatural.

"I'm sorry." He told her sincerely.

"Hm? For what?" Ako asked, confused.

"For shoving the knowledge of the supernatural on you." He answered.

Ako stared at him for a moment. Then she smacked him upside the head.

"Ow! What the hell, lady?!" Jaune yelped in surprise. Freaking hell, that had actually hurt!

"That wasn't your fault. Hell, you probably did a lot of good by doing it." She reassured him.

Jaune looked away, not feeling very reassured at all.

"Besides, better informed, better prepared, right?" Ako finished.

Jaune tried to smile at the nurse. "I guess."

Ako rolled her eyes at him and sat down on the chair next to his bed and began to fiddle away in her not ipad.

"So when can I get out?" he asked.

"Shouldn't be too long. Your Aura will finish regenerating pretty soon and that will patch you right up." Ako replied as she placed not ipad down by her desk.

He sighed in relief. He disliked hospitals.

Still, might as well make the best out of bad situation, right? He forced himself to relax and go over last night's events with more detail.

He remembered being sliced and stabbing the hag with his knife. He hoped that Ako had managed to recover that too. He liked that knife.

Then Jaune remembered Shirley and his eyes widened.

"Is Shirley okay?" he asked the nurse, feeling concerned and a little guilty at having forgotten the upperclassman that had helped him out the previous night.

Ako nodded. "She's fine," she answered then she gave him an appraising look. "Nice job with the bandages, by the way."

Jaune leaned back and closed his eyes feeling satisfied. "Thanks."

There was a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

Then Ako turned to look at him. "So everything in that journal of yours is real?" she asked.

"Almost all of it," Jaune replied with a frown. Just how much had she read? "Some of it is guesswork, but the stuff on monsters, creatures and spirits is definitely spot on."

"So vampires, werewolves, wendigos, djinns, demons, lamias, fairies, unico-" Ako began to list off.

"All of it." Jaune interrupted. Then he stopped to actually think about all the creatures she had listed off. "Except for unicorns. Where in the journal were unicorns even mentioned?" he corrected himself.

Ako gave him a look of utter and complete disappointment. "They're not?"

'_Seriously?'_ Jaune just gave her a flat stare.

Ako sighed dejectedly. Then she looked up and gave Jaune an odd look. "So that's what you do? Hunt these things down?"

'_Among other things.' _

Jaune nodded. "Yup."

"Why?" she wondered.

"What?" Jaune asked, not quite sure what she meant.

"Most people would run away from things like this. Why do you deliberately hunt them down?" she asked.

Now that was a good question. The hours were lousy, the pay was basically non-existent, and the PR was horrible. Hell, he didn't even like his job.

But he wouldn't stop. He couldn't stop.

"We all start hunting for a reason," Jaune replied flatly. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk about mine."

It still hurt to remember. After all these years, the memories still haunted him.

Ako grimaced. "I'm sorry."

Jaune shook his head. "Why? It wasn't your fault."

Ako shook her head but didn't press the issue.

Silence fell upon the room again, only interrupted by the occasional snores of the comatose students.

On the plus side, with no boo hag feeding off of them anymore, it was likely that they would eventually wake up. They already were recovering after all.

Jaune felt satisfied. The case was truly closed.

He forced himself up.

"Hey, you haven't finished recovering yet!" Ako told him as she walked towards him.

"I think I have. It doesn't even hurt anymore." Jaune began to tap-dance to prove how well he was. Sure, he was still wearing a crapload of bandages, but at least he could walk around, right?

'_Oh, yeah, tap-dance to prove you're well. Just brilliant, Arc.'_

Jaune sometimes wondered if he secretly hated himself. Probably.

Ako frowned. "That was terrible. But I guess you're alright if you can flail around like a spastic monkey."

"Please, spastic monkey's ain't got nothing on me." Jaune replied airily. "Now spastic orangutans, that's another level entirely."

Ako rolled her eyes. "Just get out."

He sighed theatrically. "I swear, I get no appreciation around here!"

Then he felt a cold breeze and looked down. "Ako, when did you get me out of my pants?"

He was wearing a hospital gown. He disliked hospital gowns.

"Would you have preferred it if I had left you with your bloodied clothes?" she fired back.

"I would have preferred it if you had taken me out to dinner before taking off my pants." Jaune grumbled, looking around for clothes that he could use.

Ako snorted and handed him a fresh set of clothes.

"Thanks," Jaune began before looking at the offered garments. "Wait, aren't these mine?" he asked, confused.

"Yup." Ako nodded. "I stopped by your room to pick up some clothes."

"Ah, cool." Jaune shrugged. He was fine with that. Ako already knew about his journal and he wasn't hiding anything important in his room.

"Not cool." Ako replied abruptly.

"What? Why?" Jaune was worried now. Had he missed something? Had she found something? Maybe all those credit cards that didn't really belong to him?

"Your friends wanted to know why I needed clothes for you." Ako answered.

Oh. OH. Oh damn. This was actually worse than her finding evidence for all his credit card fraud.

"What did you tell them?" he asked the nurse, worried.

The nurse smiled at him. It was a warm, reassuring smile.

He felt a shiver run down his spine.

"I told them that I found you in the forest and that your wounds were indicative of an ursae attack." Ako answered with that cruel, capricious, warm yet reassuring smile still shining down benevolently upon him.

Ah, that was cool. It explained everything well enough. So why was Ako smiling at him like that?

Then the realization hit him.

"You told them you found me alone, in the forest after dark?" he asked with a calm that he wasn't feeling.

"Yup!"

Jaune nodded slowly.

Oh gods. Pyrrha was going to _murder_ him. She was going to shoot him, then impale him, and then slash at him! Why was her weapon so ridiculously awesome?! And Ren was going to punch him with those weird tai-jitsu moves of his! And Nora…Oh, gods, Nora!

"_We should break his legs!"_

He whimpered.

"Oh, by the way, I sent them a message saying you were alright the moment you woke up!" Ako cheerfully interrupted his morbid thoughts.

"What?" Jaune asked, failing to understand for a moment. Then his eyes widened. "You did WHAT?!" he squawked.

Ako's smile widened. "They should be showing up soon enough!"

"WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Jaune demanded.

'_Is she trying to get me killed?! Because she's getting closer to doing that than most people and/or monsters!'_

"Your distress is greatly amusing." She replied cheerfully.

Jaune gawked. Was that the reason he was being thrown out to the pack of wolves? Or well, in this case, teen aged super soldiers. He would honestly prefer the wolves.

"…And because you've been lying to all us this entire time…" she mumbled quietly, under her breath.

"What?" Jaune hadn't quite caught that last sentence.

"Nothing!" Ako answered him with a smile.

There was a sudden knock on the door.

'_Oh please don't let it be them…Oh, who am I kidding? It's definitely them!'_

He knew not only because he often felt like his life was a story for sadists to enjoy, but because he could hear Nora.

"Jaune-Jaune! We've come to pay you a beating!"

"Visit." Ren's quiet voice corrected.

"That's what I said!"

'_I think I'm far more terrified of Nora than I am of that skinless hag I fought…'_

He gave Ako a pleading look.

She saw his panicked face and smiled at reassuringly.

He didn't really feel at all reassured for some reason.

"It's okay." She told him warmly. For one moment, Jaune felt hope blossoming inside him. "I have some of the best medical equipment here. You'll live." She finished.

His hope turned into horror.

'_Why is every girl here terrifying?!'_

"You…You wouldn't, right?" Jaune asked nervously.

"I'm afraid regulations say that visiting hours aren't over until much, much later." She told him as she walked towards the door.

Jaune silently began to plead with his eyes.

Ako's smile widened. "Time to face the music, Arc!" she chirped as she opened Pandora's Box.

"JAUNE!"

He winced. He had actually hunted down banshees that couldn't scream that high.

Like clowns coming out a circus car, people began to stream in. Maroon, orange, green, red, yellow, white, and black all began to enter the room.

'_Wait, red, yellow, white and black?'_

He had been expecting his own team. Team RWBY coming to pay him a beati-err…visit, however, was unexpected.

Jaune had a sudden panic attack when he found himself being glomped.

"Jaune, you're okay!" Ruby cried out as she invaded his personal space.

"What were you thinking?!" Pyrrha demanded insensitively loudly and close to his ears.

"I wasn't?" Jaune tried tentatively. He honestly had no idea what to say. He was usually gone after a case and the aftermath wasn't something he was used to dealing.

Much less when they involved people who were actually concerned about him. The people that wanted to him to stick around after a case were usually cops. And they usually wanted him to stick around in a cell.

There were some towns where he was still wary of going lest he risk arrest.

Jaune internally sighed in relief when they let him go.

"Why would you even go out to the forest by yourself at night?" Weiss demanded. "I knew you weren't exactly the brightest, but I never expected something so…foolish."

'_Was that Weiss showing concern? Wait a minute…' _Jaune frowned thoughtfully_. 'Okay, Arc, let's put our theory to test.'_

"Were you concerned about me?" he asked teasingly, trying to confirm his theory.

Weiss blushed slightly. "Of course not, dolt!" Then she looked away. "I just wanted to know who would be stupid enough to wander alone into the forest at night!"

_'Damn, I need more info. Okay, commence Operation: Confirm Weiss is a tsundere!'  
_

And damn, he really had to stop watching anime in his free time.

"But really, why did you do it?" Nora asked him while brandishing her hammer.

'_Meep.'_

They were all staring at him, waiting for an answer.

Jaune had no idea what to do in a situation like this. He looked to his brain for answers.

'_Sorry, brah. You're on your own.'_

Damn.

"I was just looking around. Wasn't expecting to be ambushed." He tried.

"That's the reason you almost killed yourself?" Pyrrha glared at him. "Couldn't you have waited for the next day? Couldn't you have asked me or anyone else to go with you?"

Considering what he had been doing, no, not really.

"Yeah, pretty stupid move, hotshot." Yang added, smiling at him in a manner very reminiscent of Ako. He shivered. "You could have asked any of us to accompany you if you were that curious."

"And all of you would have agreed to that? Go out into the forest in the middle of the night with a guy you barely know?" Jaune asked skeptically.

There was silence in the room as everyone began to think about that.

Then Yang smiled at him seductively. "Well…If it's you…" she began to say in an exaggeratedly innocent manner.

'_For some reason the poem of the spider and the fly comes to mind.'_

"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed indignantly.

"Oh, c'mon, Ruby! I'm pretty sure Jaune's willing to share, right?" Yang winked at them.

'_I…uh….what.'_ Well, who'da thunk it? There was actually someone that could shut him up! He really had no idea what to think or say to that.

"What?!" Weiss squawked. "How indecent!"

Pyrrha seemed similarly shocked and Jaune could have sworn he saw Ren's eye twitch.

Blake just sighed and buried her head in a book, apparently already used to her partner's unique brand of insanity.

'_Wait, where did she even pull that book out from, her ribbon?'_

Ruby turned as red as her namesake. "Yang!" Then she began to pound away at her older "sister" with her tiny fists.

Jaune took the opportunity to begin moving slowly towards the exit.

Yang just grinned and grabbed her sister in a headlock. He could almost reach the door knob… "Anyways, yes, I would go with you. You don't look like a molester or something." Yang suddenly told him as she turned to look at him.

Jaune froze. Not only because people were now looking at him preventing him from sneaking out, but also because that last statement had been rather…blunt.

'_Me? A molester? Call me that again after you step into my windowless van, young lady!'_

Jokes aside, he was NOT a molester. No matter what those stupid parents said about him in that one village. He had been hunting down a changeling, damn it!

He gave her an odd look. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Baseless accusations aside, I'd follow you too. If only to make sure you don't get eaten by something." Ren added.

That…that was the nicest thing someone had ever told him.

Now if only the other boy knew what he had just offered.

"Baseless?" Weiss muttered. She was still rather pointedly not looking at him.

"Hey, how is it my fault you landed on me?" Jaune demanded indignantly. "I swear, save them once and you'll never hear the end of it…" he grumbled.

Huh. Now that he thought about it, that actually applied to a lot of his cases.

Weiss glared at him. "Insolent!" then she stopped and took a deep breath. "...But I guess…I guess I do owe you one so I would have helped you too."

_'Theory confirmed: Weiss is a tsundere! Also, HHHHNNNG.'_

Yang was looking at them both curiously.

Jaune shuddered to think what was going on through that head of hers. He might have made a mistake when he challenged her back then in the cafeteria.

"Going for the Weiss route?" she asked him while winking at him and nudging him with her elbow.

'_Weiss route? Route? Wait, that term sounds familiar…'_

"Route?" At least Weiss seemed similarly confused.

"Jaune isn't going for the Weiss route!" Ruby exclaimed indignantly.

'_Route? I know I've heard that before…Oh…OH.'_ He thought as sudden realization hit him.

"Damn skippy I'm not!" he added in.

It's not that he had anything against the Schnee Heir. He actually very much enjoyed getting a rise out of her. It's just that, well, umm…No. No matter how HHNNG worthy she was.

"Are you saying she's not good enough for you?" Yang added, damning him to an angry tirade by the heiress.

"What?!" Weiss demanded, apparently getting the gist of the conversation. "What do you mean I'm not good enough for you?!"

'_Oh gods, the wrath of a scorned tsundere…'_ he mentally shuddered.

"Do you want me to hit on you?" he asked the heiress with an exasperated look.

"Well, no, but…" The heiress seemed at a loss for words.

Fortunately for her, Nora came to the rescue.

"I think we should lay a penalty on Jaune-Jaune!" she suddenly blurted.

Unfortunately for him, the universal law of balance came to play and he was damned just as Weiss was rescued.

Hand it to Nora to make sure everyone returned to the subject at hand: his punishment.

"How long have you been waiting to say that?" Ren asked his partner, who was now breathing heavily.

"Since we heard that nice nurse tell us what happened to him last night!" Nora declared dramatically, as if she had been waiting for hours to finally go on Splash Mountain or something.

'_Drama queen. Also, nice…nurse? Are we…Are we thinking about the same person here?'_

"That's…that's actually a good idea." Yang commented while stroking her chin.

"It might be good for him." Pyrrha agreed.

'_What am I, a dog?'_

Everyone else in the room started to nod. Hell, even Blake was eyeing him with undeniable curiosity.

Jaune looked around, hoping that someone, anyone, might show him clemency.

"Ren? Buddy? Bro?" he asked Ren hopefully.

Ren looked at him directly in the eyes. Jaune could swear he saw vindictiveness in those pink eyes of his. "Sorry man, you're on your own."

"Aww, c'mon, man!" Jaune whined. "There is a code, you know? Bros before-" he stopped himself before finishing that last line. No need to anger the harpies any more, right?

He sighed. It was probably better to let them have their way with him-

'_Oh my!'_

-now rather than later.

"Alright, hit me." He said dejectedly. _'Just don't break me. That means you, Nora.'_

"So…" Yang began with a grin. "What should we make our resident trouble maker do?"

"Ooh, ooh, we should break his leg! But only one of them because he's our team mate!" Nora suggested.

Jaune gulped. So that was the friends and family discount? Also, it seemed Nora either couldn't read minds or was just ignoring him. As far as he was concerned, when it came to Nora, it could be either or.

"Make him buy all of us dinner in that fancy new restaurant!"

That…wasn't so bad. Although that did mean he was going to have to apply for yet another credit card.

"Make him buy us weapons from that new store in town!"

Make that three cards.

"Break his leg!"

Meep.

"Buy us new books."

Yes, for the love of god, yes! This he could do with minimal amount of problems!

"Whip him?"

Kinky, but no. He wasn't really into that kind of stuff anyway.

"Make him cross-dress!"

Not unless it was Wednesday night. Also, see above reason.

"BREAK HIS LEGS!"

Wait, legs? Why was she going for both of them now? Also, nopenopenope.

Fortunately for him, he was saved by a new arrival.

"Mr. Arc?" a voice suddenly interrupted the satanic harpies discussing his fate.

Jaune looked towards the source of the voice and saw McGonagall standing by the door.

"Headmaster Ozpin would like to talk to you." She informed him.

His friends seemed alarmed. He on, the other hand, felt relieved.

'_What's the worst that can happen? Expulsion? Detention?'_

Jaune got up. "Right. See you guys in a bit."

'_SAFE!'_

"I'm still going to break your leg!" he heard Nora declare when he closed the door.

'_Oh, please let them expel me.'_

Jaune followed after the blonde professor and they soon reached the door that led to the headmaster's office.

He stopped in front of the door, waiting for the professor to go before him. Instead, she stopped and turned to look at him.

"Mr. Arc, I owe you an apology." She told him.

'_Aha! I knew someone was responsible for the Great Pancake Shortage!'_

"Umm… Why?" he asked out loud.

"When you first came here, I thought you were a fraud. But I can see that Ozpin was right about you," she began to explain with a small frown. "I must thank you for helping our academy as you have."

She couldn't possibly mean the boo hag, right? She was probably talking about his rather atrocious landing strategy and subsequent defeat of a deathstalker.

Right?

"I wish you the best of luck." She finished before motioning for him to enter. Then she turned around and left.

So she wasn't going to attend this meeting, huh? What exactly did the old man want with him anyways?

He knocked on the door.

"Enter."

He opened the door and entered the old man's lair.

It was a rather modest office, with a couple of diplomas hanging on the walls and two large bookcases on the sides. There was a rather nice desk full of weird gadgets and papers that he didn't even bother trying to understand.

The headmaster himself was sitting on comfortable looking chair by the desk.

"Ah, Mr. Arc. So good to finally talk to face to face." He greeted him warmly.

That…That was not what he had been expecting. Disappointment, scolding and maybe yelling, but not the warmth that the headmaster was now showing him.

"You wanted to see me, professor?" he asked tentatively.

"Of course. From the moment you walked in to this academy, truth be told." Ozpin replied with a smile.

That put Jaune on his guard. "Why?" he asked the headmaster as he discreetly began to look around for something that he could use was a weapon if things went south.

"Oh, do relax. I assure you I mean you no harm." Ozpin scolded him lightly.

Jaune was surprised. Then he looked directly at the old man. Ozpin was…dangerous. Eccentric yes, but the more brilliant someone was, the more eccentric they tended to become.

Ozpin reached for a folder in his desk and pulled out what looked like an old picture and some papers.

His criminal file perhaps? Jaune knew that he was wanted in a lot of places.

Ozpin offered him the papers.

Jaune debated taking them. But looking at Ozpin, he knew that he didn't have much of a chance if the old man got serious so he carefully accepted the papers, deciding to play along for now.

He examined the photo first. It was, as he had suspected, old.

What caught his attention, however, was that the man in the picture wasn't him. No, it was someone whose appearance Jaune could only vaguely remember.

"Fa…father?" he stammered out.

But how? His first home had burned down when his parents died, leaving nothing but smoldering wreckage and one confused child behind.

"Indeed." Ozpin confirmed.

Jaune swallowed and forced himself to look away from the photo. "H…how?"

Ozpin's eyebrow rose slightly. "How did I know him? How did I get this picture of him?

"Yes." Jaune answered.

Ozpin chuckled. "Oh, I knew your father very well." Informed with a wave of his hand. "In fact," he began. "He was one of the best huntsmen I'd ever met."

His father? A huntsman? As in Grimm slayer? Or a _hunter_? Did Ozpin even know about the supernatural?

"Explain. Now." Jaune demanded.

Ozpin smiled. "Your father," he began with a reminiscent look, "was a really good friend of mine. He was a good man."

Then his smile vanished. "I'm truly sorry about what happened to him."

Jaune frowned angrily. He didn't need the whole sympathy crap, he just wanted to know more about his father, damn it!

"I'm not here to be pitied, old man." He replied angrily.

Ozpin gave him an apologetic look. "My apologies."

Jaune was about to tell him to keep describing his father when Ozpin began talking again.

"My apologies…for everything."

"What?" Jaune asked, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"Your father, as I said, was a good friend of mine. In fact, he asked me to watch over you should anything happen to him." He paused and gave Jaune a remorseful look. "You could say I am your…unofficial godfather."

"God…father?" Jaune couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.

Ozpin nodded. "Very unofficially, of course. Your father didn't really like marriage customs. He called them outdated and archaic." His voice was reminiscent and he had a faraway look on his face.

"You're my godfather?" Jaune decided to confirm, feeling anger beginning to burn inside him.

"And that is the reason I apologize. I should have been there for you the moment your father passed." Ozpin finished, focusing on him once more.

His voice was full of regret and remorse. Jaune found that didn't care.

"Well, all offense intended, but you've done a pretty piss poor job of it so far." Jaune answered, feeling cold rage inside him.

So he had actually had a chance to live a normal life? Knowing that enraged him.

"I have. And I apologize." Ozpin told him sadly.

"Save it. There's nothing you can do that can make up for what happened. I spent thirteen years of my life fighting, hunting, _surviving_. That's not what a 5 year old should have been doing!" he snarled.

That was the truth, plain and simple: He had never asked to be a hunter. He wasn't going to quit now, but it had been a hard life. One full of hardships and struggles.

A life that no child should have been thrust into.

Ozpin closed his eyes. "I know. I tried believe me, I tried. I was there as soon as I'd heard what happened. But by then, you had left the orphanage."

"Are we done?" Jaune asked coldly. He didn't like talking about the orphanage. Absolutely hated thinking about his first true encounter with the supernatural.

"Not yet. There's just one more thing." Ozpin opened his eyes. "Your father left something for you."

"What?" he asked, feeling shocked.

That was impossible. Their entire house had burned down when his parents died that fateful night. He'd visited the place a couple times before; there was nothing left but the wreckage of a once modest house.

If this was a trick of some sort he was going to shoot the bastard, consequences be damned.

"He left his sword: Crocea Mors." Ozpin reached under his desk and pulled out a sheathed sword. "He left it here in Beacon before leaving."

"A sword? But why would he need a sword?" Jaune wondered. "And what do you mean by him leaving?"

Ozpin smiled. "Your father was truly a hunter like no other. He wasn't the strongest or the fastest. But he was one of the most versatile ones. The first one to actively operate in two worlds."

"What do you mean?" Jaune demanded, desperately wanting to hear more about his father.

"He was the first and only hunter to fight Grimm and hunt the supernatural." Ozpin answered with a reminiscing look on his face.

So Ozpin was in the know.

"My father was a _hunter_ too?" Jaune couldn't deny that he was very, very curious right now. He wanted to know. He needed to know. He wanted to feel some kind of connection to the family he had lost.

"Yes, and from what I understand, one of the best. In both worlds, both our Grimm infested world and your supernatural one." Ozpin confirmed and offered him the blade in his hand.

Jaune didn't know what to say. He merely accepted the sword and looked down at it. It was well balanced and it felt…right in his hand. Like it had meant to be his.

"He graduated here, you know?" Ozpin suddenly told him.

"What?" Jaune looked up.

"Your father. He graduated here." Ozpin explained.

He wasn't as surprised, considering Ozpin had already mentioned he was a huntsman too.

"He graduated with honors too." Ozpin further elaborated.

'_Really? How did he ever survive spars with super soldiers? Or is huntsman quality slowly rising?'_

"How did he start hunting?" Jaune asked him.

"It wasn't until a few years later that he ran into something that logic couldn't explain that he began to look into the supernatural." Ozpin answered.

Jaune didn't say anything. He sat there and waited for Ozpin to continue.

"I thought he was losing it at first," Ozpin began. "It's not unusual, for active huntsmen to develop PTSD. But he found it. He found a spirit and got rid of it."

Jaune was listening with rapt attention.

'_A spirit, huh?'_ It was funny how the first creature his father had hunted down was the also the first creature he had hunted down.

"He proved to me that such things existed. Unfortunately, at the time, I was preoccupied with more pressing matters to devote more of my time to investigating his findings." Ozpin chuckled bitterly.

Jaune frowned. _'What could possibly be more important than learning about a whole new world of nasties? Or was he simply too scared? Ignorance is bliss after all.'_

"Your father, on the other hand, began to delve in deeper, and he found others that also hunted down the things that common sense dictated didn't exist." Ozpin continued.

His father had associated with other hunters? How had he never heard of him? Maybe a pseudonym?

"But he never strayed from his job. He was a huntsman and huntsman protect people from Grimm. He fought Grimm and saved quite a number of people," Ozpin recounted. "He also took on the more unusual cases, saving even more people from creatures that most would dismiss as non-existent."

If what he was hearing was true, then his father was a hero.

Jaune felt something warm blossoming inside him. Pride? He also felt a smile growing on his face.

Ozpin saw his smile and smiled too. Truth be told, the guilt had been eating away at him for some time. Seeing the young hunter in front of him smile did much to alleviate some of the guilt.

"You said he left before. Why?" Jaune questioned. His father had been a hero and he had saved a lot of people. Why had he quit?

"He met your mother." Was the answer he received.

'_Did he just make a your mom joke?'_

"Come on, stop trying be all mysterious and explain!" Jaune demanded feeling some of that anger coming back. Not enough to make him leave or do something drastic, but enough to remind him that this man had utterly failed his family.

"Your mother was not a fighter, but she offered your father much needed normalcy in his life." Opizn answered.

He could understand that. His life was hectic enough, but if his father had been a hunter as well as a huntsman, then his life must have been a mess.

"Your father fell in love with her and resigned." Ozpin continued. "He said that he had seen enough, done enough for two lifetimes."

Jaune didn't know what to say to that.

"Also, he wanted his family to live normal lives." Ozpin added apologetically.

Jaune felt that anger flare up again. He got up.

"Thanks for the sword, but if that's all, I have to pack my bags." Jaune replied coldly.

Ozpin just looked at him impassively. "Are you leaving then?"

Jaune nodded. "That should be obvious enough."

He had originally planned to stay around a little more, to properly say goodbye to his friends. But he wanted to leave now. Maybe find a bar and get smashed.

"Are you sure that creature, the ah…"boo hag" is gone?" Ozpin asked him.

Jaune felt surprised. So McGonagall had been talking about the hag before.

"How do you know about that?" he demanded.

"I have been monitoring you for some time now." Ozpin replied easily, as if he hadn't just admitted to violating his privacy.

"Even in the shower? Because I can sue you for that." Jaune replied, feeling angry again.

So not only did this bastard know about the supernatural, he had done nothing at all to help him? In spite of following everything he had been doing?

Ozpin winced. "I must apologize again. To be perfectly honest, while I do know about the supernatural, I did not know what exactly was hurting the students here…Your father was the one that dealt with such creatures."

Jaune glared. Not good enough. Shifting responsibilities was not improving his opinion of the older man. He told him as much.

Ozpin sighed. "Again, I apologize. But we never expected anything other than Grimm and maybe other humans attacking us here."

Jaune hated to admit that that argument actually made some sense. Why would any monster with any kind of intelligence attack trained slayers when there were easier prey out there?

Suddenly Ozpin gave him a calculating look. "And I must admit I was testing you as well."

Jaune felt shock followed by that anger. His fingers reached for his belt before realizing that he had left his weapons in the infirmary.

Probably for the better, he was quite sure he wouldn't be able to fight the headmaster head on.

"I would have stepped in if things had become too serious, of course."

That did little to placate his anger. How much was "too serious?" How many students had to be attacked for it to be considered too serious?

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" Jaune asked him coldly.

Ozpin nodded impassively, although Jaune could see the older man's jaws clenched tightly.

"I assure you I do not like the idea of my students being attacked, and if I had known what was hurting them I would have killed them myself." Ozpin told him emotionlessly.

In spite of his anger, Jaune felt a shiver run down his spine. This man was far more dangerous than anything he had encountered before.

"What I meant by my previous statement, Mr. Arc, is that my associates would have stepped in if you had been hurt too badly during your fight." Ozpin added as an afterthought.

Jaune forced himself to calm down, but found it difficult to do so.

"The hag's dead and gone." Jaune replied. "Your students will soon recover…except for one of them."

Ozpin nodded. "Ah, yes, the one who first encountered the hag."

Jaune turned around. "If that's all, I have to leave now. Your students are safe from the supernatural for now."

He walked towards the door and reached for it when Ozpin's voice stopped him.

"But what if something else comes?"

Jaune paused. "Didn't you or my father ever plan for something like that happening?"

"Yes, but most of those plans died with him." Ozpin answered flatly.

Jaune sighed, turned around and walked towards the desk. "Give me something I can write in, I'll give you a number you can reach me at."

Ozpin nodded and handed him a pen and a piece of paper.

Jaune began to scribble down one of his many phone numbers.

Ozpin suddenly chuckled.

Jaune stopped writing and glared up at the bastard. "What's so funny?" he demanded.

"This reminds me of your father's dream." Ozpin replied with a bitter smile on his face. "Ironic how his dream came true in a way he wouldn't have wanted. And that his dream would be taken a step further by his son no less..."

Jaune froze. His father's dream…

"What was his dream?" he demanded. If it was something he could do…

"He told me wanted to train more hunters to be like himself. True hunters that could fight both grimm and unnatural monsters. This was before he left, of course."

That…that went against everything he'd been taught by his mentor. To drag other people away from the bliss that was ignorance? Unthinkable!

But now that he thought about it, there had always been _hunters_ that had claimed that Aura was real and that it could employed to great effect during their hunting trips…Had they been people that had been taught by his father?

There had never been too many of them and most people had regarded them as drunks, his mentor included.

"He also wanted his family to live normal lives, but you. You have taken the first step towards becoming a huntsman and a hunter. And you have also told two people here about the things that go bump in the night." Ozpin explained.

That…wasn't exactly true or false. Sure, he had slain a Grimm and received some basic knowledge of Aura and Grimm but he was not a huntsman.

But he couldn't deny that he had introduced two people here to the supernatural.

"I am not a huntsman." he reminded the headmaster.

"No, but you are certainly qualified to become one with training." Ozpin replied.

Jaune felt torn. On one hand, this went against everything that he'd been taught about normal people and the supernatural. He also didn't want to stay here any longer. Those evil sons of bitches that roamed the night weren't going to kill themselves.

But on the on the other hand, this was his father's dream. This could very well represent the last link he had to his family, beside the sword.

He also had to consider the fact that his parents had wanted him to live a normal life…

He glared at Ozpin. "Are you truly sorry about the things you've done to me? To my family?"

Ozpin nodded. "Yes. There's nothing I would not do to redeem myself before your father."

Jaune nodded. The way forward was clear. "I want you to help me achieve my father's dream."

Ozpin didn't look surprised. If anything, he looked satisfied.

Bastard.

"Of course. Anything you need." Ozpin told him earnestly.

'_I'm sorry father, the normal life part will have to wait a little…'_

"I guess I'm staying, huh?" Jaune mused out loud. Then he glared at headmaster Gendo Ikari. "I have a list of conditions."

Ozpin nodded. "As long as it is within reason."

"One, you are going stop monitoring me."

Seriously, that was creepy.

"Certainly. I was only monitoring you at the beginning to ensure you were as good as I had hoped you would be." Ozpin answered.

Again, creepy.

"Two, I don't want everyone to know about the supernatural. Every student here deserves a chance to be a…" Jaune swallowed his resentment. "…to be a kid." Jaune finished bitterly.

"Of course." Ozpin agreed with a smile. "I would not have it any other way."

"Three, I choose who to teach, not you." Jaune would not stand for Gendo messing in his affairs ever again.

"You are the one with the knowledge, not me."

"And finally, I reserve the right to go on hunting trips and raids that might require my help." Jaune finished.

Ozpin seemed a little more reluctant at this. "Fine, but I do not want you disappearing for more than one month at a time."

Reasonable. Although the audacity needed to demand something from him pissed him off.

Jaune nodded. "It's settled then. I do not look forward to working with you, but if this for my father…"

Ozpin sighed. "Words cannot describe how sorry I am-"

"Then don't try. I only need your help, not your regrets." Jaune snarled.

Ozpin nodded. "Of course. For your father."

"For my father."

And he left the office.

If his suspicions were correct, his father had tried to introduce other hunters to the ways of huntsmen. He was going to try the other way around.

'_So this going to be home for the next years, huh?'_

* * *

AN: Phew, this took some time to write. I recently acquired a semi-decent computer and have discovered a love for modded games. Also, school's becoming a bitch so chapters may take me more time to write.

Anyways, as for the chapter itself, just a transition chapter. Nothing much to say here, except maybe, goddamn, character interaction is so damn difficult when there are so many of them!

Now to address individual reviews:

**Necrofantasia: **Jaune is not as cold and pragmatic as Emiya (yet?). As long as Jaune has his soul, he won't be going around killing people to make his job easier.

**Mizu: **To be fair, Jaune isn't as much insane as he is unaccustomed to living a relatively normal life.

**MrSlinkerman: **May I begin by saying that I'm glad to finally have a fan of the show review my work? Moving on, I'll be completely honest: the only reason I started this fic is because there was one thing I wanted to write. I've been winging almost everything else, so some parts of this fic probably don't fit in as you said. With that said, here are the pitiful justifications I managed to come up with for some of your points.

There should be more hunters with knowledge of Aura/hunters should be more powerful.

I was using Gordon and Dean as examples for hunters. Sure, Dean gets more accepting in the later seasons, but even in the later seasons, he kills a kitsune that had killed to save her child, never mind the fact that Dean has killed people to save his brother before, so I take it he, like almost every other hunter, is just xenophobic and dislikes anything that could even vaguely be considered unnatural.

Also, I'm assuming not many huntsmen would ever run into supernatural creatures. Most monsters would probably go for easier prey. Although the idea of a vampire managing to turn a huntsman is intriguing.

Also, I had always intended for Jaune to act as a sort of bridge between hunters and huntsmen. In fact, this was one of the few things that I had planned out beforehand. Still, you're absolutely right and I should have planned this out better.

Jaune's reactions to foldable frame weapons

Jaune has never run into a huntsman on duty before. Police and other such law enforcers yes, but never huntsmen. Also, I wasn't sure if foldable frame weapons were widespread and well known so I decided to make Jaune more ignorant about certain aspects to avoid making him look too knowledgeable. I wanted Jaune to learn more about huntsmen as he spent more time in Beacon.

More powerful mosnters

Of course! This was something I planned to do from the very beginning! Since this is not a true crossover as I have said before, I'll be drawing ideas from various sources. Maybe a little bit of Megami Tensei for various gods, a little bit of Bram Stoker and bit of Bakemonogatari for vampires and so on.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: A moment of courtesy**

Jaune left the office, still angry. But more than that, he was also conflicted.

He had said he would stay. He wanted to follow his father's footsteps and make sure there were people capable of protecting the rest of humanity from all inhuman threats.

But therein lay the problem. Now that he wasn't in the same room as the Bastard, he was able to think more clearly.

His mentor, and every other hunter he had ever associated with, believed that there were things that normal humans were not meant to know. Things that they were better off not knowing.

Was it truly okay for him to do something like this? His father had, sure, but he had approached veteran, grizzly hunters, not huntsmen trainees.

Once you entered the world of the supernatural, you never really managed to escape it. Even if one were to avoid actively looking for and hunting down such threats, you could never just ignore the things out there.

When a normal person saw the news and there was a murder reported, they would probably think something along the lines of, 'Oh, gods, what a tragedy. I wonder when they'll catch the murderer.'

But those in the know would look at a murder and think something along the lines of 'Was it just a scumbag or was it a supernatural scumbag? If it was a supernatural scumbag, what could it have been? What kind of monster is hunting around my town? How much damage can it do?'

Or, well, that was his thought process at least.

Not everyone had the mental fortitude required to look directly into the abyss and accept the knowledge that came with it.

A hunter could only end up in one of two ways:

Dead before their time, or "retired". And he would say retired between quotation marks because no one ever truly managed to get away. No one ever got out unscathed.

He had seen it before. They were rare, but a hunter would sometimes choose to "retire". They usually lived far away from the rest of civilization, basically becoming hermits. They were bitter, apathetic and miserable.

There was always a price to be paid for leaving.

He sighed.

And then there was another issue. Ozpin had told him the truth, of that he had no doubt. His bullshit detector was pretty keen and as a conman himself, he knew all the little tricks of the trade. Besides, the files he'd provided had done a lot to prove he was telling the truth.

No, the problem wasn't that. He knew that Ozpin had told him the truth or at least what he believed was the truth.

The problem was that the truth had come so…_freely._

In his experience, that rarely, if ever, happened.

Something, perhaps an instinct born from having lied to others and been lied to for years, told him that there was something missing.

The Bastard was still hiding something.

And that wasn't the end of it. The Bastard had said he owed his family a debt.

The question then was, was the bastard trying to repay the father or the son? Where exactly did his priorities lay?

There were too many things that he was unsure of.

He sighed again and hurried his pace.

Not to classes or to his room. There was too much on his mind at the moment. He was headed to the top of one of the watchtowers.

He rather liked the place. It was large but not overly spacious. The best part, however, was that people rarely, if ever, came up here. Probably because most people didn't even know you could come up here.

Hell, the only reason he knew of this place was because he had gone through Beacon's layout to see where the boo hag might strike next.

He sat on one of the benches that had so conveniently been placed there and thought about everything. Thought about the situation he'd found himself in.

'_Can I…Can I really do it?' _The thought of introducing people to the creatures in the dark was a daunting one. But he'd done it before. Hell, he'd done it very recently!

But that was different. It wasn't as if he had planned to give his accomplices anything more than just a crash course on one specific monster.

He was going to train young people to hunt down all the monsters that roamed the night, which preyed upon humanity. He would be imparting knowledge that they could very well do without.

He guiltily noted that, yes, he was willing to educate some people here. Not people he actually liked though. He was going to have to find skilled people that he could have a working relationship with but no actual attachment to.

He sighed.

There was a lot weighing his mind, but there was one thing that he could concentrate on right now. Something that would let him put off his problems just a little longer. He knew it amounted to procrastination but found that he didn't care.

He raised his new blade.

Crocea Mors.

As far as he could tell, it was just a sword. It was a fine blade, of that there was no doubt. In spite of its old age, it was still as sharp as the day it had been crafted.

But he didn't care about any of that. All that mattered was that it had been his father's.

This was his sword. This was his legacy.

He gave it a few swings and winced as he felt a sharp pain in his hand, where the hag had sliced into him.

He ignored it. Pain, much like an ex-girlfriend, was something he was very good at ignoring.

Then he started to swing it around in complex patterns, moving as he would if he were wielding his knife, relying on his instincts to compensate for its length.

'_Hey, I think I'm getting better at this! Maybe I have natural talent?'_

Of course, the moment he thought that he fell on his ass as he swung too hard.

Okay, fine, so maybe his prowess with the blade had been exaggerated a little.

Ah, well, he was good enough with his knife so how hard could it be, right?

* * *

As it turned out, it could be very hard. He had tried to use his new sword as an overgrown knife but that hadn't really worked out.

Jaune was panting hard from the floor where he had fallen. Again.

He frowned angrily when a piece of the bandage wrapped around his forehead fell over his eye. He ripped of the stupid thing. It's not as if he was still bleeding.

Jaune was really beginning to love Aura.

His sword, on the other hand…

He got up and glared at the damned thing.

He was going to master it or die trying, damn it!

Then again, there wasn't much he could learn like this. Not by himself. He was going to need a teacher.

But who to ask? Dilemmas, dilemmas…

His face broke into a small smile when his watch began to beep at him. He sheathed the blade. He was going to find a teacher, think about his moral dilemmas and find a way to get more information on his father and the Bastard.

But for now, morning classes had ended, the cafeteria was open and it was serving lunch now.

It was time to go and stuff his face full of fatty products.

But a trip to the bathroom first. His forehead actually was still bleeding. Stupid hag.

* * *

"Jaune!"

He looked up from his musings when he heard someone call his name as soon as he entered the cafeteria.

Ruby waved at him from their table.

In spite of everything that was going on, he smiled.

How could he not? It was like coming back to your house after an arduous day of work and immediately being greeted by the family puppy.

"Miss me?" he asked as he sat down.

"With the way you strut about? Never." Weiss replied coolly, although he noticed that she threw him concerned looks from the corner of her eyes.

His smile widened.

And here was the grumpy wife!

"Why, Weiss, I didn't know you cared enough to notice my strut!" he replied cheerfully.

She sputtered a little before glaring at him. "I do NOT-"

"So what did Ozpin tell you?" Pyrrha interrupted his fun.

"Did he punish you?" Nora chimed in excitedly. "Because you're not getting off even if he did!"

He thought about his meeting with headmaster Gendo Ikari.

Then he began to nod slowly. "Yeah, he did."

"What's he making you do?" Yang asked him.

He thought about it. "Eh, not much."

'_Only a complete change to my lifestyle and beliefs so far.'_

Although truth be told, he wasn't going to miss all those stays in cheap motel rooms. Those things had _fleas_ sometimes.

Then he noticed Ruby was looking at him intently.

'_I always knew someone would eventually notice how handsome I am!'_

Yang noticed it too because she suddenly gave him a look filled with both murder and amusement.

'_Oh, gods, she looks like a serial killer!'_

He shuddered.

"Umm..Ruby? I know I'm cute and all but could you stop staring?" he tried to stop it from sounding as though he was begging.

"What?" Ruby gave him a confused look. Then she blushed. "No, no, no! It wasn't like that!" she began to wave her arms around for emphasis.

'_Wait, so I'm not cute?'_

Weiss rolled her eyes. "So what were you looking at?"

"I was only looking at his sword!" Ruby exclaimed, trying to defend herself and only managing to dig herself (and him by extension) deeper into the pit.

The silence that followed was so thick that he could swear he could taste it.

It tasted kind of like lambs, funnily enough.

Ruby looked around, confused, wondering why everyone had fallen silent.

"His…sword?" Ren asked slowly, giving him an amused look.

Jerk.

Jaune glared at him. "You're not helping."

Yang cracked her fists as she glared at him. He briefly considered making a run for it.

Ruby's face turned ruby as she proved that she wasn't as naïve as her cute, dorky appearance would suggest. "That's not what I meant!" then she gestured at the sword strapped to his hip. "I meant that sword!"

Then the peanut gallery finally noticed that Jaune had a sword that they did not remember him having.

Yang stopped giving him that look and, like every other person in the room, began to look at Crocea Mors.

"Guys, would you please stop staring at my sword? It's getting kind of awkward." He commented as he tried to focus on his lunch.

Blake and Ren rolled their eyes while Pyrrha coughed into her hand.

Yang suddenly grinned. "Yeah, guys, stop looking at his sword!"

Of course Yang would be the one to continue this particular line of dialogue.

"Where did you get it?" Ruby asked him eagerly.

'_Oh, right, weapon nut.'_

"It was a gift…an inheritance." He replied slowly, unsure as to how to answer this.

"An inheritance?" Pyrrha gave him a worried look.

"Eh?" Ruby just seemed confused. "But doesn't that mean that someone d-"

She was promptly silenced by her partner who clamped her hand on her socially inept partner's mouth.

"Ruby!" Weiss hissed.

'_Go, foot in mouth syndrome!'_

Ruby's eyes widened as she realized what she had been about to say. "Ahmsowwy!"

He didn't speak muffled, but he guessed she had apologized

He shrugged. "It's okay. He...my father, he died a long time ago." He assured his friend even as felt a sharp pang in his chest.

He didn't remember his family all that well. That didn't mean he didn't miss them or want them back.

An uncomfortable silence fell on the table.

"C'mon, guys, what's with the awkward silence?" he asked cheerfully as he forced a smile on his face.

"R-right!" Ruby managed to stammer out with forced cheer. Then she looked at him seriously. "But seriously, I'm so sorry."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "I said it's fine. It happened when I was 5, so I'm not exactly waiting for daddy Warbucks to adopt me, okay?"

"When you were…five?" Pyrrha looked at him concern and…was that pity?

Goddamn it. Well, at least she was cute.

"That's so…" Nora turned watery eyes on him. "WAAH!" she suddenly wailed as she rather abruptly bear hugged him.

"Gah!" Jaune's breath was forced out as he found his ribs being crushed.

'_Oh, gods, so this how I'm going to die. Squeezed to death and then probably eaten by the Nora Constrictor.' _

"It's okay, Jauney! We're here now!" Nora cried out as she hugged tighter.

'_That just makes me worry more! '_

Suddenly, his breathing returned to normal as the pressure lightened up.

He immediately began to gasp and sputter.

"Nora, you're going to suffocate him if you keep that up." Ren murmured while pulling the sobbing Nora off of him.

"B-but Ren! He needs a hug!" Nora declared passionately.

He shuddered when he noticed that everyone in the table seemed to agree with her statement. Ren tilted his head, thinking about it for a moment. Then he nodded.

"You're right. He does." He agreed with the weapon of mass destruction known as Nora Valkyrie.

Nora's face brightened. "So can I hug him more?"

Jaune gave the boy a pleading look.

Ren seemed to consider it for a moment. Jaune could swear he was giving him a smirk from the corner of his lips.

Jerk².

Then, thank the gods, he shook his head. "He needs a hug, not a boa constrictor."

'_Great minds think alike!'_

No, wait. Ren's a jerk.

'_Nora 's torment brings people together!'_

Still, that jerk had just saved his ass. He mouthed a quick 'thank you' at the jerk.

Nora pouted. The sight would have been absolutely diabetes inducing if it weren't for the fact that he knew that behind those smiles, behind that cheerful and bubbly personality; there was a monster that wanted to hug things to death. And then maybe eat them. Or something. This was Nora he was talking about, he wasn't exactly sure what she'd do.

The jerk nodded back almost imperceptibly.

"So it was just you and your mom, huh?" Yang mused out loud with a seriousness that he was unused to from the blonde.

He winced a little at the mention of his mother.

Then he sighed. Probably best to come up front with everything right now.

"Actually, my mother died too." He corrected her quietly.

The uncomfortable silence descended on the table once more.

'_Gods, it's like I have gift or something.'_ Jaune thought to himself as he noticed said silence. _'I have the ability to kill the mood in any situation…Jaune Arc, blessed with suck!'_

"Your mother…too?" Nora asked slowly. She suddenly broke free from Ren's grasp and tackled him again. "JAUNEY!"

"GAH!" Jaune was NOT liking this invasion to his personal space.

'_Oh, gods, this is worse than before! Save me, Jerk-sama! Save this poor, unworthy man!'_

He struggled to break free but found that the more he struggled the tighter the Nora Constrictor would hug.

Maybe brute force was not the answer here. Maybe he should try to talk his way out of this?

"Calm…down!" he managed to get out. He liked them rough, but not this rough!

"WAAAH!" she wailed as her grip tightened even more.

"She…died when…I was five too!" each word felt like a heroic struggle. Considering his situation, it probably was.

Nora's grip loosened. "When you were…five?"

"Isn't that when…When your father passed?" Pyrrha asked, having formed the connection between the two ages.

He inwardly sighed. He didn't much like talking about this.

"They both died the same night, actually." He confirmed softly.

"But then…Then you were…" Pyrrha began to stammer uncomfortably.

"Orphaned when I was five?" Jaune asked rhetorically.

Silence descended upon their table once more.

'_Yup, Jaune Arc, blessed with suck, the ability to instantly kill the mood anywhere!'_

"Yup." he answered, also rhetorically, seeing as no one was saying anything.

"But then who took care of you?" Weiss asked him, and for once, the usual biting tone of hers was gone, replaced by something softer, almost, dare he say it?, concerned.

He sighed again. "I stayed in an orphanage for a month."

He didn't want to talk about this. He did not want to think about the events that had transpired during his short stay in that blasted place.

Weiss perked up slightly when mentioned that. "For a month? So you were adopted shortly afterwards?"

Huh. Well, that was one way to put it.

"Actually, the orphanage burned down." He answered with a grimace.

He mentally winced. _ 'Ah, the beginning of my illustrious career as an arsonist!'_

Weiss looked down. "I'm sorry."

Nora began to tighten her grip around him once more. He quickly gave the other boy a pleading look.

Ren sighed and positioned himself nearby, ready to drag away Nora in case she tried to murder him again.

Maybe he wasn't such a jerk.

"Then what happened?" Blake asked him quietly, observing him with undisguised curiosity and an intensity that was unlike her.

He was shocked. Blake? Talking in full sentences?

'_Doesn't she know that curiosity killed the cat?'_

But hey, if it was BLAKE asking, how could he possibly say no?

"A man passed by." Jaune's lips curled into a small smile. "He saw me standing in front of the wreckage."

His mentor. The man that had taught him almost everything he knew today.

"And he kind of took me on as his apprentice." He finished.

'_I wonder what he's up to…'_

"Apprentice? Was he the one that taught you how to fight?" Ren interrupted his musing.

He thought about it. He smiled grimly. "Mostly."

Then he sighed AGAIN and leaned back. "Of course, he left some time ago." He had often tried to contact him, to no avail. "Haven't seen him since I turned fifteen."

Nora's grip tightened up even more. He gave Ren an alarmed look.

"So you've been alone all this time?" Weiss asked him softly.

He nodded. "It's honestly not as bad as you'd think."

Well, apart from the hunts that is. And even those could be slightly fun every now and then depending on the situation.

Hunting made you develop a highly ironic and somewhat twisted sense of humor.

"Motels are honestly not as bad once you get used to them." He added with a small smile.

"Motels?" Ruby gave him a worried look. Everyone in the table exchanged looks that he couldn't decipher.

"Yeah. And I had no curfew!" Jaune tried to add cheerfully. "I could come and go whenever I pleased!"

"No…curfew…motels…" Pyrrha began to murmur, looking concerned.

All the assembled people gave him odd looks. He was confused as to why everyone would look at him like that. It really hadn't been that bad!

"Uh, yeah?" he replied, honestly lost as to what she was getting at. "The food on the road's good too!"

Well, occasionally. It could be overly greasy at times or under or overcooked every now and then but you got used to it.

What annoyed him was the motion sickness. It made travelling from place to place a real pain the ass. Still, it wasn't as bad as long he wasn't travelling by air or by motorcycle.

Those made him puke, as his nickname could confirm.

"Food on the road…motels…no curfew?" Bake continued Ruby's list of things he had just said.

Okay, seriously, what was wrong with these people?

"Jaune." He turned around when his partner called him.

"Pyrrha?" he answered with a confused smile.

"Did you…did you travel by yourself a lot?" she asked.

Before he could answer, Ruby immediately asked a question too. "Did you have to stay in cheap motels a lot?"

He was about to answer when Yang added another question to the Inquisition. "Did you…did you ever travel with a friend? An acquaintance? Something?"

Jaune looked around. "Can I answer now, or should I wait for everyone to ask something?"

He was met with silence.

He nodded. "Okay, then, to answer these questions, yes, yes, sometimes, although it never lasted more than a week."

"Why?" Ren directed at him. "Why did you travel a lot?"

Jaune shrugged. "Just taking an odd job here and there."

"Job?" Blake interjected.

He nodded. "Gotta make ends meet somehow, right?"

Well, that and because he would feel like crap if he committed credit card scams without returning something to the community, you know?

"Jobs?" Weiss asked seriously. "When you were at that age?"

Hadn't someone else, say, a black haired girl with a fondness for books already asked that question?

"Yeah, jobs. Like I said, had to find a way to make ends meet, right?"

'_And let's not forget my desire to see every inhuman creature burn. Well, except for those that like fire. Those can…freeze? Freeze to death? Is that a thing?' _

Nora began to nod seriously, all her usual cheer gone.

Quite frankly, this terrified him. Was she maybe possessed? It would certainly explain why she had tried to murder him twice in the last ten minutes.

"Christo." He quietly murmured.

He didn't know whether to feel relief or not at the lack of reaction.

"You mean to tell me that after your parents died, your orphanage burned down, and your adoptive parent left you, you began to travel around staying in cheap places and taking odd jobs to make ends meet?" Nora asked him flatly.

'_Huh. She's far more perceptive than I'd thought.'_

Or maybe she was possessed by something else entirely? Perhaps a spirit?

Well, at any rate, that was a good condensed version of everything he'd just said. He nodded. "That's the gist of it, yes."

Nora nodded slowly and lowered her gaze, obscuring her face. "I see."

He felt worried. His instincts told him that something was wrong. That he should be running.

"Nora?" he asked tentatively. He reached out and poked the excitable girl in the shoulder.

"WAAAAH!" She wailed as she tightened her grip on him. "MY POOR PANCAKE BUDDY!"

"Ack!" Jaune winced as the Constrictor began to crush his bones.

"R…Ren!" he breathed out.

Ren just gave him a smile. "Sorry, but she's right. You need a hug. Just sit back and enjoy."

"Tra…i…tor!" he managed to force out of his lungs. He immediately regretted that. He needed all the oxygen he could get!

'_And what do you mean "enjoy?" Do I look like a masochist to you? Actually, considering what I do…You know what, don't answer that.'_

Also, for future reference, Ren WAS, indeed, a jerk. The jerkiest of jerks actually.

"Help!" he called out desperately, hoping that someone, anyone, would help him.

He saw his partner approaching him from the corner of his eyes and felt relieved.

Pyrrha would save him! Right?...Right?

The relief turned to horror when she hugged him instead. _Hugged_ him.

"What are…you…doing?" he tried to demand as the pressure worsened.

"They're right. You do need a hug." She replied softly, and to his horror, he noticed that there was moisture in her eyes.

He looked at team RWBY. "Please….help…me!" he pleaded. They were looking at him with varying degrees of pity.

Pity in this case was good, right? It improved the chances of them helping, right?

Yang nodded resolutely. "I'll help you." She told him as she stood up.

'_Oh, thank the gods.'_

Then she also hugged him.

'_Damn you, gods!'_

"You poor thing." She breathed softly. "Just let mama Yang make it all better, okay?"

No, it was not okay! Also, did she really have to hug him like this while calling herself "mama" Yang?

Cripes, he was not Shinji, damn it! He did not have Oedipus Complex!

'_Goddamn it, Freud would have a field day with this!'_

Also, he decided to shut up. The more he asked for help the more people attacked him here.

Then Ruby suddenly hugged him too. Even though he hadn't said anything since the blonde attacked him.

'_Oh, that's just not fair!'_

Ruby sniffed. "I'm so sorry, Jaune."

'_I don't know what you did but if you pull all these harpies away from you we'll be even!'_

Of course, he couldn't actually say anything because he was having trouble BREATHING!

Well, at least it couldn't get any worse, right?

Then he felt two more warms wrapping themselves around him.

'_Damn it, Arc, you know better than to tempt Murphy!'_

"Don't get the wrong idea, okay? I'm…I'm just doing this because…everyone else is." Weiss stammered out as she added to her team's effort to strangle him to death.

In spite of everything, Yang chuckled. "You probably needed a hug too, after hearing that."

Weiss huffed but didn't reply. Nor did she let go.

He knew she disliked him, but he hadn't thought she would go as far as to try and kill him.

Well, at least everyone had been accounted for. So he could probably survive if he managed to weather this assault. He would probably need physical therapy, but he was sure he could return to a semi-functional human being.

Wait, why there two more arms wrapping themselves around him? More importantly, how was he being hugged by so many people at the same time?

"Bl…ake?"

But that was impossible, right? I mean, Blake? BLAKE?

"I'm sorry." She said simply. He did notice that her soft expression was tinged with some amusement at his predicament.

'_Why is everyone here trying to kill me?!'_

Still, Jaune was an opportunist and he took chances when he saw them.

"Does…this…mean I'm…off the hook?" he asked hopefully.

"Noooo!" Nora wailed even as she crushed his ribs.

Oh, alright, then.

'_Why is everyone here trying to kill me?!'_

* * *

He survived. He didn't know how, but he had.

He took in a deep breath of air.

'_Oh, air, how I missed thee!'_

"Hey, Jaune?" Pyrrha interrupted his worshipping of oxygen and its miraculous life giving abilities.

Also, it tasted absolutely delicious. You never knew how good oxygen was until you got attacked by snake women.

"Yeah?" he asked warily, positioning himself to jump away should she try to hug him again.

"Where were you this morning? You missed a lot of classes." She asked him.

Ah, right. Wait, wasn't he supposed to have had a duel today?

"I was skipp-" he stopped as he noticed Pyrrha's frown. "Err…I mean, I was talking to the Basta-err…Ozpin."

She gave him a skeptical look. "For three hours?"

Jaune shrugged. "Also went to the infirmary?" he asked more that affirmed with a winning smile.

He was usually a little more composed than this. It's just that it was hard to lie to his partner. She just had this…aura, no pun intended, around her. He also had a lot in his mind and not enough oxygen to supply every thought.

"Really." Pyrrha replied flatly.

He sighed. "I'm sorry. So what did I miss?"

Pyrrha also sighed. "Your duel, to begin with. Professor McGon-I mean, Goodwitch! Goodwitch!" she corrected herself with a blush.

Jaune's lips twitched.

"Professor Goodwitch said that your duel would be postponed since you were in the infirmary." She continued as if nothing had happened.

Jaune nodded. _'Ah, well, no biggie.'_

"She did say she was gonna punish you most severely if you missed out one more class though." Ren interjected.

Jaune shuddered. "Thanks for the warning."

'_As kinky as that sounds, I think I'll pass.'_

"Anything else?" he asked.

Ren shook his head. "Not much, actually. We did get some homework though."

Ah, homework. When he had been a bit younger, he had often wished that his biggest concern was homework and not the monster trying to eat his face.

Looking at the assignment that the other boy was holding out, he kind of wished he were facing a monster trying to eat his face.

At least he knew what to do in situations like those. It's not as if he could just shoot his homework until the job was done.

Or maybe he could?

"Oh, and we took some notes on basic Dust applications." Ren continued.

Nora gave him a shocked look. "We did?"

Ren rolled his eyes. "Yes, you can look at my notes later."

"Thanks, Ren!" Nora replied cheerfully.

"You can copy my notes, but I'm expecting you to have a legitimate reason for skipping class next time." Pyrrha told him.

Huh. Well, everything had gone better than expected.

"Sure thing!" he answered with a winning smile. Then he realized it was almost the weekend. Well, then, it was time to set some plans in motion.

"Okay, just gotta go make a quick phone call. See ya in a bit!" he told the assembled would be murderers before running off to find a phone.

"Wha-Wait!"

"Jaune!"

"You really need to stop doing this!"

He heard the peanut gallery call out after him.

Oh, well.

Important calls to make and meetings to arrange. Oh, and it would be a good chance to fulfill his promise to Ruby.

* * *

AN: Man, it's gotten harder to write with schoolwork and my part-time job eating away most of my time.

Anyways, just a transition chapter, not much going around right now.

Now to address individual reviews:

**MrSlinkerman: **Ha, I loved that manic-depressive teddie bear ("Lollipop disease". Snicker.) and Castiel's fascination with the pizza man still makes me laugh. In hindsight, that one Ozpin part was kind of contrived…

I have never seen Blue Exorcist but that was how I was planning to portray the demons in this story. (The ones from Judo-Christian mythology that is. I don't plan to make one Pantheon stronger or more important than the others.)

**Necrofantasia: **No, Jaune will not be forgiving Ozpin for some time, if he ever decides to. As for a meltdown…Well, Jaune has a couple of things going for him.

**Abilis: **Heh, I haven't forgotten Jaune's promise. I actually already have a very rough draft written out already.


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